Reimann, A: Lear

Their Lear's score is based on quick-moving accompanied recitative with underlaying or interposed instrumental mood and atmospheric descriptions...The energy and pace of the Reimann bear witness... — Gramophone Magazine, July 2015 More…

Release Date: 30th Mar 2015
Catalogue No: 109063
Label: Arthaus Musik

Reimann, A: Lear

World Premiere Recording
Bo Skovhus (König Lear), Katja Pieweck (Goneril), Hellen Kwon (Regan), Siobhan Stagg (Cordelia) & Erwin Leder (Narr)
Philharmoniker Hamburg & Chor der Staatsoper Hamburg
Simone Young (conductor) & Karoline Gruber (stage director)

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Live from the Staatsoper Hamburg, 2014

Set Designer Roy Spahn

Costume Designer Mechthild Seipel

Aribert Reimann’s Lear is a milestone in the tragic opera of the 20th century. Ever since its 1978 premiere at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, it has made its triumphal progress around the world in more than thirty productions as the most successful Shakespeare opera of our time. The remorseless logic of the action and plot and the primal force of irresistible sonic fantasies give this work the power to hold the attention of its listeners and viewers from the first moment to the last. The great theme of self-deception is fancifully portrayed in this captivating stage production by Karoline Gruber with a retreat into the interior of a far from frail old man. It is not senility that drives Lear, brilliantly sung by Bo Skovhus, into isolation but his hyperactive ego. The first Hamburg performance of Lear is a musical achievement of the highest order. “The orchestra of the State Opera under its GMD Simone Young is in absolutely top form.” (Handelsblatt)

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Subtitles: DE (Original Language), GB

DVD 9 / NTSC

Running Time: 156 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available

Reviews

July 2015

Their Lear's score is based on quick-moving accompanied recitative with underlaying or interposed instrumental mood and atmospheric descriptions...The energy and pace of the Reimann bear witness to its creators' engagement with their subject. Their version feels less like a setting of another's masterpiece than a subject they're realising themselves.

August 2015

Skovhus’s baritone shows some rust and graininess, but remains quite steady, capable of expressive and dynamic colouration. It’s a powerfully committed performance, less stylized than Fischer-Dieskau’s. Reimann’s over-the-top writing for Goneril and Regan perhaps justifies Gruber’s directing Katja Pieweck and Hellen Kwon as (in Pauline Kael’s indelible phrase) ‘harpies from the soaps’.

Reimann, A: Lear

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