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Opening Concert

Nike Wagner | Opening speech: "EROS CENTER MUSIK"

Mahler Chamber Orchestra | LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA | Arnold Schoenberg Chor | Claudio Abbado | Soloists
Thu, 12 August 2010 | 18.30 | KKL Luzern, Concert Hall
Claudio Abbado  

Mahler Chamber Orchestra | LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA | Arnold Schoenberg Choir (chorus master Erwin Ortner) | Claudio Abbado conductor | Tatjana Gürbaca director | Stefan Heyne stage design | Reinhard Traub light design | Peter Mattei Don Fernando | Falk Struckmann Don Pizarro | Jonas Kaufmann Florestan | Nina Stemme Leonore | Christof Fischesser Rocco | Rachel Harnisch Marzelline | Christoph Strehl Jaquino

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
"Fidelio", Op. 72. Opera in two acts
Semi-staged performance

“O joy without name!” So sing the reunited lovers in “Fidelio.” And what a joy it will be to hear Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera as interpreted by Claudio Abbado, the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, and a host of world-class soloists including Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann. They all join together to open Lucerne’s Summer Festival 2010, which centers around the idea of love. In this case love takes the form of Leonore’s heroic and courageous determination, which is able to move mountains. Disguised as the prison assistant Fidelio, she secretly makes her way down to the dungeon’s deepest cell, in which her husband Florestan, a political prisoner, is detained. And she succeeds in freeing her spouse from the clutches of the tyrant Pizarro. Unstoppable loyalty and selfless devotion overcome all brute force and despotism. Hope wins the day above all in Beethoven’s music, which brings us unforgettably back from darkness into the light: music of joyful liberation, of thanksgiving, of ennobled humanity, for “true love knows no fear.” Author Nike Wagner, director of the Weimar Art Festival, will give the Festival’s opening speech on the topic of this most exalted of feelings.

 


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