Opera in Concert

Christoph Willibald Gluck for example wrote »Orphée et Eurydice« explicitly to be a »reform opera«, written in protest against artificiality and cheap showmanship on stage, creating thus an expressiveness that is better heard than seen, particularly when performed by the visionary Sir John Eliot Gardiner with two of the period instrument ensembles he himself founded. Luigi Dallapiccola‘s opera »Il prigioniero« on the other hand – performed by the NDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock – was composed for the radio as a sort of radio play. The NDR Symphony Orchestra also celebrates the ultimate German opera: Carl Maria von Weber‘s »Der Freischütz.« The series concludes with a performance by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Jeffrey Tate of Leonard Bernstein‘s »Candide«: an explosive mix of operetta, opera parody and musical comedy.