April 14, 2017 7:30pm
NEC’s Jordan Hall
DER ZWERG (THE DWARF)
By Alexander von Zemlinsky
Libretto by Georg Karlen based on Oscar Wilde’s short story, The Birthday of the Infanta
BOSTON PREMIERE
Sung in German with projected English titles
Run time: 90 minutes
Performed without intermission
In Der Zwerg, the visionary words of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Birthday of the Infanta are set to music by Alexander von Zemlinsky. One of the most provocative musical voices of his time, Zemlinsky influenced the work of Erich Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg, and Gustav Mahler.
Der Zwerg tells the story of a person with dwarfism who falls in love with a princess, with heartbreaking results. Set to expressive music of love and despair, The Dwarf is a dramatic and musical tour de force—this seldom heard opera soars with lush post-Romantic music.
Take the journey with Odyssey Opera, open up the kaleidoscopic world of opera, and go outside the ordinary to experience live orchestral music and the stunning power of the human voice.
“Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera once again have put Boston opera lovers in their debt with a powerful concert performance of a work that few in the audience are very likely to be able to see onstage or even hear live again.”
–The Boston Musical Intelligencer
Cast and Creative
Aleš Briscein
DER ZWERG
Kirsten Chambers
DONNA CLARA,
THE INFANTA
James Johnson
DON ESTOBAN
Michelle Trainor
GHITA
Erica Petrocelli
FIRST MAID
Dana Lynne Varga
SECOND MAID
Vera Savage
THIRD MAID
