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| | Arts Calendar / December 11 / Concerts |
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19:00 | Bella Voce: René Pape (Germany) |
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 René Pape is a singer with immense vitality, revered by critics and audiences worldwide. As Opera News wrote: "René Pape is an artist who thrills his audiences with charisma, intelligence, and a one-in-a-million voice: the luxurious timbre of Pape's supple, expressive bass is unmistakable; its velvety, dark-brown texture shot with ear-catching flashes of brightness." Born in Dresden, Pape has been a member of the Berlin State Opera since 1988, but considers New York's Metropolitan Opera his operatic "home away from home." Since his house debut in 1995, he has appeared every season at the Met, in 18 roles and more than 160 performances, including four major debuts: Mephistopheles in Faust, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Escamillo in Carmen, and the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila. But it was at the famous Unter den Linden - home of the Berlin State Opera - where Pape honed most of the great roles of his career. Music Director Daniel Barenboim was an early supporter, and the Berlin State Opera has played host to Pape's performances as King Marke in Tristan und Isolde; King Heinrich in Lohengrin; Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflote; Pogner in Die Meistersinger; Rocco in Beethoven's Fidelio; Fasolt in Das Rheingold; Hunding in Die Walkure; and the title role in Don Giovanni. The opera house was also the venue for Pape's appearances as Ramfis in Verdi's Aida; Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; Leporello in Don Giovanni; and Orest in Strauss's Elektra. In 2006 he expanded his repertoire to include the title role in Boris Godunov, which won him the title "Artist of the Year" from the German Critics Association. Pape begins his 2011/12 season at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust. Later this fall he brings the role to the Metropolitan Opera (in a production directed by Des McAnuff). It was his role debut as Mephistopheles at the Met Opera in 2005 that prompted Martin Bernheimer of the Financial Times to write: "The evening was stolen… by René Pape, the powerful, playfully sardonic Mephistopheles. His basso, more cantante than profondo, rolled, roared, and crooned, as needed, with easy insinuation. Strutting through the evil charades with a different costume from a different period in each scene, he underplayed the menace, and doubled its impact. This devil got his due." Following his Met turn in Faust, Pape returns to Europe for the remainder of the winter and spring, performing recitals in Geneva and Barcelona before traveling to Berlin for performances of Tristan und Isolde (King Marke), Das Rheingold (Wotan), and Die Walküre (Wotan). In June Pape sets off to Vienna to sing the role of King Philip II in Don Carlos. Pape's 2010/11 season was a memorable one, dominated by performances in the title role of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and increased recital activities around the world. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times praised Pape's role debut as Boris at the Metropolitan Opera: "With his towering physique and unforced charisma, Mr. Pape looks regal and imposing. Yet with his vacant stare, the haggard intensity in his face, his stringy long hair and his hulking gait, he is already bent over with guilt and doubt. Mr. Pape has vocal charisma as well, and his dark, penetrating voice is ideal for the role. Not knowing Russian, I cannot vouch for the idiomatic quality of his singing. But his enunciation was crisp and natural. And in every language, Mr. Pape makes words matter." Early in 2011, Pape gave his recital debut in Los Angeles, of which Mark Swed, chief critic of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Vocally, Pape is a complete singer. His lows vibrate with a satisfying subterranean buzz, his highs have a baritonal smoothness. He doesn't fuss. Wolf's three Michelangelo Songs were the closest he came to soul-searching opera, these examples of raw, inconsolable inner anguish. Pape ended the first half with Schubert's Prometheus, a Goethe text in which the distressed poet… rails against Zeus. I would not have liked to have been that god facing Pape." 2009 was a landmark season in Pape's career. He gave his first solo recital to a sold-out Carnegie Hall audience, having chosen a program of serious German lieder for the occasion; the reviews were ecstatic. He also participated in the Met's final presentation of Otto Schenk's popular production of Wagner's Ring, first staged at the Met more than 20 years ago. Pape received his musical education in Dresden as a member of the world-famous Dresden Kreuzchor, and completed his studies at the Dresden Conservatory. He first won international recognition when Sir Georg Solti invited him to sing Sarastro in a new production of Die Zauberflote at the 1995 Salzburg Festival. Musical America named him its 2001 Singer of the Year, and in 2006 he was one of five leading figures in the world of opera honored by the Opera News Awards. In Moscow René Pape will perform with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia conducted by Charles Olivieri-Munroe (Canada). More info
MMDM Svetlanov Hall  |
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20:00 | Einsturzende Neubauten (Germany) |
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 Along with Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, Germany's Einsturzende Neubauten ("collapsing new buildings") helped pioneer industrial music with an avant-garde mix of white-noise guitar drones, vocals verging on the unlistenable at times, and a clanging, rhythmic din produced by a percussion section consisting of construction materials, power tools, and various metal objects. Einstürzende Neubauten were founded by vocalist/guitarist Blixa Bargeld and percussionist/American expatriate N.U. Unruh in Berlin as a performance art collective; their early activities included a seemingly inexplicable half-naked appearance on the Berlin Autobahn, where the duo spent some time beating on the sides of a hole in an overpass. A concert held on April 1st, 1980 at the legendary Berlin club Moon is regarded as the official birth of the Einsturzende Neubauten. An anniversary celebration that took place on April 1st, 2010 at the celebrated Berlin club Tresor clearly expressed that the Einsturzende Neubauten are still among the living even after 30 years of the most intensive music ecstasy. The following outline showing the eventful existence of a lively band indicates why that should not be taken for granted. Einsturzende Neubauten are in studio in the present moment working on an exceptional new album Lament which will be performed in Germany, Holand, Italy and, of course, Russia in current and next years. The title composition of the album was inspired by testimonies of prisoners of war dating from a century ago. Two of the oldest musical forms - the lament and the motet - have also been assimilated into the composition, along with the music of the "Harlem Hell Fighters", the first Afro-American combat troop, who were assigned by the US to the French High Command in World War I. Read more
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