Munich_Biennale

Munich Biennale

Munich Biennale

Opera and music theatre festival in Germany

The Munich Biennale (German: Münchener Biennale) is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers.[1][2]

History

Hans Werner Henze's artistic directorship (1988–1996)

Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:

The whole story started with a query from the departmental head of the (Munich) cultural office ... whether I ... would be interested in considering creating some sort of civic music festival in Munich. After a period of time I suggested organizing something that had been lacking up until that point, something that also did not exist anywhere else in the world and yet was an urgent necessity – namely, a place where the young generation of composers interested in theatre ... could realize their ideas.[3]

Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed.[4] Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music.[5] See also Klangspuren.

Peter Ruzicka's artistic directorship (1996–2014)

Peter Ruzicka took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene")[6] in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze.[7]

Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott's artistic directorship (2016–)

The composers Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott took over as joint artistic directors of the Biennale, starting in 2016.[8] Their approach to curation further expanded the festival's remit beyond opera, to reflect an 'expanded composition term' and the 'open field' of new music theatre which spans '[f]rom new opera to scenic installation, from minimalized artistic interventions in municipal spaces to composed performance'.[9]

Operas given at the Munich Biennale

World premieres are marked as WP

More information Premiere, Composer ...

Significance

The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Detlev Glanert, Gerd Kühr, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Param Vir, Toshio Hosokawa and Violeta Dinescu.

The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level.[15]

References

Notes

  1. [1]
    Munich Biennale Concert Series: Biennale plus Archived 30 July 2012 at archive.today Ernst von Siemens music foundation 2010
  2. [2]
    Kerstan, Michael; Wolken, Clemens (2006). Hans Werner Henze: Komponist der Gegenwart. p. 117. ISBN 9783894875367.
  3. [3]
    "Munich Biennale Official website". Munich Biennale. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
  4. [4]
    Official website, archive notes to first biennale, 1988 Archived 5 September 2012 at archive.today
  5. [5]
    Official website, Klangspuren (discussion concerts) archive Archived 1 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. [6]
    Salzman, Desi, p. 164
  7. [7]
    Official website, archive notes to fifth biennale, 1996
  8. [8]
    "The Munich Biennale for Music Theatre as a Form of Artistic Research – DARE conferences".
  9. [9]
    "Press – Münchener Biennale".
  10. [10]
    Dinescu's Eréndira was a co-commission with the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where it had its world premiere on 18 March 1992
  11. [11]
    Battistelli's Teorema was a co-commission with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where it had its world premiere in the Teatro Comunale, on 10 May 1992
  12. [12]
    Vir's operas Broken Strings and Snatched by the Gods were a co-commission with De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, where they had their world premieres on 11 May 1992
  13. [13]
    Tilt, Der Einsturz des Himmels and In Erwartung were presented in a triple bill entitled Amazonas
  14. [14]
    Advance information for the 2014 edition from the Munich Biennale website. Retrieved 25 December 2013
  15. [15]
    Salzman, Desi; p. 222: ".. with one or two notable exceptions, the lively London theatre and music scene has not developed a strong creative music-theatre component. The result is that the Munich Biennale and the film industry have sometimes been better patrons for new British opera and music theatre than local musical institutions".

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