New Children's Opera: World Premiere of Marius Felix Lange's ”Schneewittchen“ in Cologne
The premiere of the new opera ”Schneewittchen“ by Marius Felix Lange will take place on 21 April 2011 at the Cologne Children's Opera.
His earlier, prizewinning opera for children and adults, "The Opera Ship or You Think It's Hot at the South Pole" based on a libretto by Elke Heidenreich, thrilled young and old no less than the lovingly composed music to the children's book classic by Karla Kuskin "The Orchestra Gets Dressed" for speaker and orchestra, of which the CD recording with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne conducted by Markus Stenz and speaker Christian Brückner (issued by Random House Audio) won the Special Prize of the 2010 German Prize for Reading Aloud in November.
In the opera "Snow White, Lange (who wrote the libretto himself) tells the famous fairytale with colourful and imaginative means without losing the thread of the Brothers Grimm original. The well-known personnel of the story is expanded with agreeable-absurd figures like courtiers and forest dwellers. The seven dwarfs, craftsmen in the best dwarf tradition, have been given individual abilities. One of them is, as in the Grimm original, actually a miner; the others practice professions such as jewellery craftsman, blacksmith, glass-blower, carpenter and inventor. In Lange's version, the different capabilities of the dwarfs are what frees Snow White from death.
21 April 2011
Cologne
Children's Opera, Altes Pfandhaus, 3 PM
World premiere: Marius Felix Lange
”Schneewittchen“
Children's Opera after the fairy tale of the Brother's Grimm
With musicans of the Gürzenich Orchestra
Musical Director: Samuel Hogarth
Production: Elena Tzavara
Commissioned work by the Children's Opera Cologne
