OPERA SEARCH
Prokofieff’s War and Peace staged in Munich
Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov is staging Serge Prokofieff's opera War and Peace in its original version at the Bavarian State Opera. This epic work will be performed eight times this season at the Munich National Theatre under musical director Vladimir Jurowski.
From 5 March 2023, Serge Prokofieff's monumental opera War and Peace will be seen for the first time in Munich at the Bavarian State Opera. For their staging, which is a co-production with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski and stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov have returned to the original version of the work and have also made previously unpublished parts accessible again. This comparatively rarely performed opera was also recently seen in a co-production staged by Calixto Bieito: in 2021 his production was first seen at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and had a follow-up run at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest a few weeks ago.
Within the schedule of War and Peace_ performances at the Bavarian State Opera are two dates at the beginning of July as part of this year's Munich Opera Festival, which refers to war and love as its leitmotifs. The singing cast includes Andrei Zhilikhovsky as Andrei Bolkonsky, Olga Kulchynska as Natasha Rostov, Arsen Soghomonyan as Pierre Bezukhov and Dmitry Cheblykov as General Kutuzov.
With War and Peace, Serge Prokofieff and his co-librettist, his second wife Mira Mendelson, refer to Tolstoy's epic novel of the same name, which is set in Tsarist Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and which Prokofieff had always described as one of his favourite books. In his musical realisation, the composer did not initially want to focus on war scenes or mass scenes. When he began working on the stage work in 1941 - in the middle of the Second World War - he had in mind an intimate drama, even 'lyrical scenes' in the spirit of Tchaikovsky. Nevertheless, in the end, an opulent work of considerable proportions emerged. As a result, each new stage production is an event in itself, and Dmitri Tcherniakov's direction promises a multi-dimensional, contemporary reading.
The Munich premiere will be livestreamed on STAATSOPER.TV, on BR-Klassik and arte.tv/opera.
> View the arte stream
Sergei Prokofieff: War and Peace
Opera in 13 Pictures (1941-52) op. 91
Opening night: 5 March 2023 Nationaltheater, Munich
Co-production of the Bavarian State Opera with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona
Director: Dmitri Tcherniakov
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
> Visit the Bavarian State Opera website
> Further information on Work: War and Peace
Promotional image: © Bayerische Staatsoper
