There have been lots of attempts to stage Winterreise, but this sounds
like one of the better ones - relating Winterreise to that other great
classic of doomed Romantic souls, Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther.
Indeed, without Werther, one wonders if the whole Romantic sensibility
might not have developed the way it did.  It's hard for us now to
appreciate just how seminal the novel was for people of the time - young
men took to dressing up like Werther just as young men now dress like
Goths or rappers, to "make a statement".

Indeed, this production places Winterreise in context.  Even though I

haven't seen it, it started me thinking a lot, and reaching for my
well thumbed school copy of the novel.  So the idea is stimulating.

Venue: EDISON THEATRE, 213 East Broadway, Long Beach
The dates are this weekend:
Saturday, May 21 at 8pm
Sunday, May 22 at 4pm
Wednesday, May 25 at 8pm
Thursday, May 26 at 8pm

The singer is Erik Nelson Werner, a great favourite of mine, a baritone
with real fire in his voice.  He'll also be acting the part of Werther,
with Jennifrer Hart Jackson as Lotte.  Quite an ambitious production,
but a very intriguing idea.

The link

   http://www.longbeachopera.org/

is unusually informative!  The complete facsimile of the vocal score
of both Winterreise and DSM are given, plus the complete novel online,
so need to hunt down the print version.  In fact I'm so impressed by the
amount of information given on the site that I think the organisers are
to be congratulated for putting together such intelligent, well chosen
background!  They certainly aren't dumbing down, by any means.  This is
good enough to be bookmarked as a resource. I do hope someone attends
this, I wish I could!!!!

Anne
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