Scene polidimensionali XVII

The White Princess

Opera

Music: Márton Illés (*1975)
Libretto: Márton Illés after the drama of the same name by Rainer Maria Rilke

Musical director: Georg Fritzsch
Director: Andrea Moses
Set and costume designer: Christian Wiehle
Dramatic advisors: Ludwig Haugk, Cordula Engelbert

Performers: Lesia Mackowycz (soprano), Heike Wittlieb (soprano), Merja Mäkelä (mezzo soprano)
Steffen Doberauer (tenor), Michael Müller (tenor), Michail Milanov (bass), Hans Griepentrog (bass), Marek Wojciechowski (bass), Kevin Thompson (bass), Astrid Meyerfeldt (actress), Katja Sieder (actress), Julian Mehne (actor)

Philharmonisches Orchester der Landeshauptstadt Kiel

Composition commissioned by the GEMA Foundation for the Munich Biennale

Co-production: Munich Biennale and Theater Kiel

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Tickets: € 20,–
Reduced rate: € 10,–

Online ticket sales: www.muenchenticket.de

World premiere:

Wednesday, April 28, 8:00 p.m.

Additional performances:

Thursday, April 29 and Friday, April 30, 8:00 p.m.

Gasteig/Carl-Orff-Saal

Composer forum: Márton Illés
Moderation: Peter Ruzicka
Wednesday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.
Gasteig/Room 0.131

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Márton Illés named a series of compositions “sceni polidimensionali,” in which different textural events in the music act like characters in a drama. Music ensues as imaginary theatre. This aesthetic must lead the composer to music theatre. Illés took the decisive step with the seventeenth piece in the series. For the text he has chosen a dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke: “The White Princess,” scenes of a yearning – tales of misery and secret intrigues become mere marginal notes in comparison. Illés does justice to the floating feeling of the poem by not assigning the singers and actors rigid roles. They take on roles and form themselves in a musical expanse. From here the perspectives unfold to create the scenes.

Márton Illés, born in 1975 in Budapest, studied piano, composition, and music theory in Basel and Karlsruhe. He received commissions to write compositions from, among others, the Klangspuren Festival in Schwaz, Austria; roc berlin; Alte Oper Frankfurt; the Hungarian Radio Network; SWR; WDR; the Witten Days for New Chamber Music; and the Spoleto and Eclat festivals. He has received numerous awards as a composer and pianist, including the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Composition Prize in 2005; a grant from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2008; and the Schneider Schott and Hindemith Prize. He has been teaching music theory at the University of Music in Karlsruhe since 2005. He is now studying under a grant at the Villa Massimo in Rom.