STORMY INTERLUDE | MAX BRAND
PREMIERE: MAY 21st, 2016 OPERA IN ONE ACT / LIBRETTO BY THE COMPOSER
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor | Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Director | Amélie Niermeyer
Sets and costumes | Maria-Alice Bahra, Jan Schroeder
Dramaturgy | Svenja Gottsmann
CAST
Mrs. Lambert | Frances Pappas
Mona | Hannah Bradbury
The Stranger | Jason Cox
First State Trooper | Raimundas Juzuitis
Second State Trooper | Elliott Carlton Hines
Orchester Mozarteumorchester Salzburg
Chor Mitglieder des Chores des Salzburger Landestheaters
A »Stormy Interlude« (a truly stormy Intermezzo…) comes about for young Mona who has been extremely bored with her life. Day after day she observes the comings and goings of the travellers in her guest house. And every day Mona yearns more and more for an adventure. But one rainy November night everything changed when she saw a stranger at the door who looked exactly like what she had imagined. According to her fiancé Elmer this was the criminal »Willy the Charmer» who was sought after country wide. Mona is torn between duty and longing and feels totally confused.
The Austrian composer Max Brand experienced his most successful years during the final years of the Weimar Republic. After Hitler seized power in 1933 Brand’s works were no longer performed. In 1938 he escaped into exile and emigrated to the USA through Brazil. Only in 1975 did he return to Austria, where he died in 1980. A large part of his work went missing in the confusion of the post-war years.
The Salzburg State Theatre has taken on the task of staging Brand’s forgotten opera »Stormy Interlude« of 1955 as a world première. Director Amélie Niermeyer is no stranger to the Salzburg public, having on previous occasions generated huge enthusiasm with her interpretations of »Wozzeck«, »The Clemency of Titus« and »Rigoletto«. The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra are playing under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
Opera