Aribert Reimann: L'invisible (Live) Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin & Donald Runnicles

• Aribert Reimann (1936- ): L'invisible:
• 1 I. L'intruse 20:08
• 2 Interlude I 03:22
• 3 II. Intérieur 19:10
• 4 Interlude II 03:38
• 5 IIIa. La mort de Tintagiles, Act I 13:12
• 6 IIIb. La mort de Tintagiles, Act II 06:09
• 7 Interlude III 02:00
• 8 IIIc. La mort de Tintagiles, Act III 05:33
• 9 IIId. La mort de Tintagiles, Act IV 05:39
• 10 IIIe. La mort de Tintagiles, Act V 05:29
• Total Runtime 01:24:20

Info for Aribert Reimann: L'invisible (Live)

For L’Invisible, like his other two most recent operas Bernarda Alba’s House and Medea, Aribert Reimann has turned to a text of world literature, adapting it himself as his own librettist. With it, he returns to his “home” opera house the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Four of his stage works were commissioned by that opera house and the world premiere of his new, ninth opera was also given there. It was staged by Vasily Barkhatov, one of the most interesting Russian directors of his generation, who made his debut at the opera house on Bismarckstraße after having worked at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinski Theater in St. Petersburg. The premiere was conducted by the Principal Conductor himself, Donald Runnicles.

Aribert Reimann’s new opera, L’Invisible, conjures a mysterious and foreboding atmosphere. On 8 October, the world premiere of this “trilogie lyrique” will be presented at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in a production by Vasily Barkhatov conducted by Donald Runnicles.

Reimann first encountered the plays of Maurice Maeterlinck in the 1980s at the Berliner Schaubühne and was immediately inspired to write an opera, however thirty years passed before the idea became a reality. L’Invisible is based on three short Maeterlinck plays, L’Intruse, Intérieur and La Mort de Tintagiles, woven together through musical language and the recurring character of a young boy. Another Maeterlinck play, Les Aveugles also provided inspiration.

Aribert Reimann – L’Invisible: Living in the shadow of death: In L’Intruse a family waits for a doctor, called to attend to the daughter who has just given birth. However, before he arrives the blind grandfather notices death is amongst them. This opening scene is accompanied only by strings, but the texture is shattered at last by the baby’s first cry: a shrill chord in the woodwinds. At the same moment, the mother takes her last breath. Three countertenors hidden in the wings represent the invisible messenger of death and create an atmosphere of omnipresent foreboding.

In contrast, Intérieur is scored for only woodwinds. The audience peers through a window at the family. Outside, a stranger is telling the Grandfather about the eldest daughter’s suicide after he dragged her body out of the river. As the grandfather prepares to break the news to the family, the two girls in the inside room take up the melody previously sung by the countertenors. Only the young boy, Tintagiles, remains on stage to provide the link to the final scene.

In La Mort de Tintagiles the entire orchestra is used for the first time. An old queen issues the command to have all her potential heirs killed. Afraid that Tintagiles may be on her list, his sisters try unsuccessfully to protect him and the countertenors reappear as the queens’ executioners. Reimann ends the work as it opens, as if the story were to begin again.

"From the moment a human is born, they live with death. Maeterlink explores this theme in his three plays. In the third, somebody is being kidnapped and murdered. Every day humans are murdered because of an order. If one drives into a crowd of people, they don’t know who their victims are. They’re invisible, just like here." (Aribert Reimann)

Rachel Hamisch (Ursula/Marie/Ygraine)
Annika Schlicht (Marthe/Bellangère)
Seth Carico (der Vater)
Stephen Bronk (Großvater/der Alte/Aglovale)
Thomas Blondelle (der Onkel/der Fremde)
Salvador Macedo (das Kind/Tintagiles)
Tim Severloh (Dienerinnen der Königin)
Matthew Shaw (Dienerinnen der Königin)
Martin Wölfel (Dienerinnen der Königin)
Ronnita Miller (Dienerin)
Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Donald Runnicles, Dirigent

Rachel Hamisch
She guested with roles like Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Michaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Marzelline in Fidelio, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Anotnia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Blanche in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Clémence in Kajia Saariaho‘s L’amour de loin, Anne Truelove in The Rake’s Progress or Hélène in Donizetti’s Le Duc d’Albe in Berne, Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Essen, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Brussels, Antwerp, Florence, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Modena, Verona, Turin, Naples, Madrid, Athens, at the festivals of Glyndebourne and Lucerne or in Santiago de Chile. At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan she gave her debut as Nermin in the world creation of Fabio Vacchi’s opera Teneke conducted by Roberto Abbado.

Since the beginning of the 2012/13 season she belongs to the ensemble of Zurich Opera House, where she sings roles like Contessa, Michaëla or Antonia.

2013 she sings Fiordiligi in a new production Così fan tutte a Bari.

Rachel Harnisch sings a large concert repertoire from the passions by Johan Sebastian Bachs to Luigi Nono and works with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Douglas Boyd, Philippe Herreweghe, Kent Nagano, Dimitri Kitajenko, Eliahu Inbal, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roberto Abbado, John Neschling, Armin Jordan, Christian Zacharias, Stefan Soltesz, Sir Christopher Hogwood, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Muhai Tang, Jeffrey Tate and with the leading European orchestras.

2013 are scheduled concerts with Brahms‘ Ein deutsches Requiem, Schumann‘s Das Paradies und die Peri, pieces by Luigi Nono at the Lucerne Festival, in Zurich, Schaffhausen, Brig, Lisbon, Paris, Edinburgh, Leipzig, São Paulo, …

Song recitals are very important to her, 2012 at Lucerne Festival she sang Hindemith’s Marienleben, which she will perform in Antwerp in 2014.

She recorded several CDs, among them arias by W. A. Mozart and Pergolesi’s Stabat mater conducted by Claudio Abbado. Her Antonia in a production from the Grand Théâtre de Genève and her Marzelline in Fidelio from the Lucerne festival conducted by Claudio Abbado are available on DVD.

Donald Runnicles
is the General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival (Jackson, Wyoming), as well as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was recently named Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, having served as its Chief Conductor from 2009-2016. Maestro Runnicles enjoys close and enduring relationships with several of the most significant opera companies and symphony orchestras, and he is especially celebrated for his interpretations of Romantic and post-Romantic symphonic and opera repertoire which are core to his musical identity.

In the 2017-18 season, Maestro Runnicles will lead the complete “Ring” cycle at the San Francisco Opera, and returns to the Metropolitan Opera to conduct Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. He also guest conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony. In Europe and elsewhere, he returns to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Staatskapelle Dresden, BBC Scottish Symphony, and the Sydney Symphony for two subscription weeks. Opera productions include the world premiere of Aribert Reimann’s L’Invisible and a new production of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Strauss’ Salome at the Hannover Staatstheater.

Donald Runnicles’ previous posts include Music Director of the San Francisco Opera (1992-2008), during which he led world premieres of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, Conrad Susa's Les Liaisons dangereuses, and the U.S. premiere of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise; Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City (2001-2007); and General Music Director of the Theater Freiburg and Orchestra (1989-1993).

Mr. Runnicles' extensive discography includes complete recordings of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Britten’s Billy Budd, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. His recording of Wagner arias with tenor Jonas Kaufmann and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin won the 2013 Gramophone prize for Best Vocal Recording, and his recording of Janáček's Jenůfa with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin was nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY award for Best Opera Recording.

Donald Runnicles was appointed OBE in 2004. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Booklet for Aribert Reimann: L'invisible (Live)