FULL PANDORA (Kranebitter) Vienna 2023 Heike Porstein, Georg Bochow, Andreas Jankowitsch, Astrid Schwarz

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Pandora  
• Composer: Kranebitter Matthias based on music of Pancrace Royer   
• Libretto: based on a libretto by Voltaire. with additional texts by Diderot, Rosseau and Charles-Henry Sanson, the royal executioner of 18th century France    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Odeon Theater, Vienna, Austria, MTTW Musiktheatertage Wien  
• Recorded: September 20, 2023
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Heike Porstein, Georg Bochow, Andreas Jankowitsch, Astrid Schwarz
• Conductor: Vinicius Kattah  
• Orchestra: BLACK PAGE ORCHESTRA  
• Stage Director: Michael Höppner  
• Stage Designer: Christopher Sturmer  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, desubs, frsubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

About French revolution, enlightenment, harpsichords and guillotines.
The new opera by Matthias Kranebitter is a cross-genre attempt at revival of the baroque opera torso “Pandora” based on lost music by Joseph-Niclas-Pancrace Royer and a libretto by Voltaire. A diverse, unbridled fantasy about the Enlightenment, revolution, harpsichords and guillotines. Following the music-theatrical algorithm of the underlying myth of creation and progress, an opera is created for the posthuman age, which gradually goes off the rails and develops an exciting life of its own. What does Pandora’s Box release or preserve?

The libretto “Pandora” by the French star enlightener and progress optimist Voltaire was published in 1748. Titan and human creator Prometheus steals fire from the Olympian gods and brings the creature he loves, Pandora, to life. As a result, the separation of heaven and earth and the end of the Golden Age are accomplished and human history is set in motion. The setting by the baroque composer Pancrace Royer was a failure; after only a fragmentary performance, all the sheet music disappeared.

Just as the artificial woman Pandora is brought to life by her creator, Matthias Kranebitter’s music breathes new life into the opera torso. The algorithms of a musical decomposition process in Royer’s crazy harpsichord works allow baroque rubble and broken harmonies to merge with noisy avalanches of sound; the composer Royer himself becomes Prometheus, the history of the opera its subject matter. This creates a cross-genre live happening that mutates into a circling chaos of color, form and sound. The music-theatrical algorithm of this myth of creation and progress brings humanity into being in the same way that humanity is transcended: the opera becomes a work of art for the posthuman age.
Quoted from mttw.at

0:00:00 Opening (Diderot)
0:01:46 Ouverture (le Vertigo)
0:07:27 Act 1 / Scene 1 (Prometheus, la Majestueuse)
0:11:30 Act 1 / Scene 2 (Prometheus, les Matelots)
0:14:35 Act 1 / Scene 3 (Prometheus, les tendres sentiments)
0:20:10 Act 2 / Duet (Prometheus & Pandora, l’ Incertaine)
0:25:10 Interlude / Critique (Rosseau)
0:28:53 Act 3 / Trio (Jupiter, Prometheus, Pandora; le Vertigo)
0:37:30 Act 3 / Lamento (Pandora, la sensible)
0:45:10 voice-over: The Invention of the Guillotine
0:48:11 Act 4 / Scene 1 (Prometheus, Choeur de Titans)
0:50:30 Act 4 / Scene 2 (Pandora, la Zaide)
0:52:20 Act 4 / Scene 3 (Jupiter, Remouleuse)
0:56:30 Act 5 / Utopia (Bagatelle)
1:01:40 Act 5 / Apocalypse (Le Marche de Skythes)
1:06:20 voice-over: The Death of Marat
1:09:08 Act 5 / closing aria Pandora (L’ Aimable)

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