Download opera workshop – insight 1

OPERA WORKSHOP – INSIGHT 1
FIRST INSIGHT INTO THE CREATION OF AN OPERA AT THE KUNSTHAUS
BREGENZ
Bregenz, 12 May 15. How does an opera come into being? Where do composers and librettists get their
ideas for new works? How does a director create a staging for a score that doesn't exist yet? First insights
into the work of the Bregenz Festival's newly established Opera Workshop ("Opernatelier") were
provided at the Kunsthaus Bregenz yesterday at a combined concert and discussion, in which the
festival's artistic director Elisabeth Sobotka, the composer Zesses Seglias, the director and author Ernst
Marianne Binder and the Bregenz Festival dramaturge Olaf A. Schmitt took part.
The musical interludes were provided by soprano Frauke Burg together with instrumentalists from the
Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, who performed two works by the invited composer, one of which was a
world premiere.
The Opera Workshop aspires to provide all the artists involved in a new opera project with a space where
they can speak and listen to each other and gain an awareness about each other's needs. Lake Constance
is an inspiring location where the various artists – the composer, the librettist, the director, the stage
designer, the musicians, singers and others – can all get together for a few days for a collaborative session
several times a year to generate ideas. The audience is invited – i.e. outside the festival season too – to
attend the sessions and watch the artists' ideas taking shape, put questions, share doubts, and explore new
sound worlds.
Collaboration with local institutions is a defining characteristic of the Opera Workshop. Partnerships
have been arranged with the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra. The goal is to
create a brand new work of music theatre to premiere at the Bregenz Festival. Collaborating in this first
project are the Greek composer Zesses Seglias, the director and author Ernst Marianne Binder, and the
designer Heimo Zobernig.
The Bregenz Festival 2015 runs from 22 July to 23 August 2015. For tickets and information please call
+43 (0)5574 407-6 or visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com.
SHORT BIOS
The Greek composer Zesses Seglias studied in Thessaloniki (Greece) under Dimitris Papageorgiou and in
Graz (Austria) under Beat Furrer. His works have been performed by the chamber orchestra Klangforum
Wien and the Diotima Quartet. In 2014, his first chamber opera hystéra was premiered at Graz Opera.
The author, musician and stage director Ernst Marianne Binder has written many plays and prose texts.
From 1987 to 2003 he was artistic director of the Forum Stadtpark Graz, and has directed the theatre
dramagraz since 2003. From 1995 to 2003, as house director at Mecklenburg Theatre in Schwerin, Binder
staged premiere productions of a number of plays by Einar Schleef.
Heimo Zobernig is one of most important figures on the Austrian art scene. This year he will be in
charge of the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Since 2000 he has been professor of sculpture at
the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Zobernig also works in the world of theatre as a stage designer. The
Kunsthaus Bregenz will present a major solo exhibition of his work from 7 November 2015 to 10 January
2016.
The young soprano Frauke Burg studied at Detmold, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in
Munich and at the "August Everding" Bavarian Theatre Academy. Most recently she appeared in the role
of Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) at the Bad Orb opera festival, where she had previously sung
Frau Fluth (The Merry Wives of Windsor). She has performed at Bavarian State Opera in the world
premiere of Jörg Widmann's Babylon, and at the Prinzregententheater, also in Munich, in the title role of
Aleramo in Giovanni Simone Mayr's Adelasia ed Aleramo in a production directed by Tilman Knabe and
conducted by Andreas Spering. At Frankfurt Opera she sang in the world premiere of Rolf Riehm's
Sirenen. Her repertoire further includes Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Morgana (Handel's Alcina),
Isabella (Rossini's L’inganno felice) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). She won a scholarship from the
Richard Wagner Society, Munich branch, and was a finalist in the German Federal Singing Competition
in Berlin in 2008. Starting in the coming season she will be a member of the ensemble at Trier Theatre.