GREAT ORCHESTRAS – GREAT CONDUCTORS
Two masterpieces of the Baroque period performed by MusicAeterna and the famous Teodor Currentzis:
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, a monumental work of Baroque opera, and Dixit Dominus, one of Handel’s
finest pieces of Latin church music.
– George Frideric Handel: Dixit Dominus
– Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (concertante)
Dido: Anna Prohaska
Aeneas: Tobias Berndt
Belinda: Nurial Rial
Sorceress: Maria Forsstrom
Witches: Nadia Kucher, Olga Malgina
Sailor: Victor Shapovalov
Spirit: Valeria Safonova
MusicAeterna Orchestra & Choir
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Teodor Currentzis is the Artistic Director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Artistic Director of the International Diaghilev Festival, Founder and Artistic Director of the ensemble MusicAeterna and of the MusicAeterna Chamber Choir, both formed in 2004, during his tenure as Music Director of the Novosibirsk State Opera and Orchestra (2004-2010).
MusicAeterna, now resident in Perm, has earned its reputation as the foremost Russian ensemble specialised in authentic performance. However, the orchestra does not limit its repertoire to early music, successfully combining pieces from different epochs, including 20th century works and new commissions. Together with Maestro Currentzis, they signed exclusively to Sony Music in 2012 and are recording the three Mozart Da Ponte Operas for release between 2014 and 2015. Previous recordings include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, Mozart Requiem and Dido and Aeneas all on the Alpha label and the Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Alexander Melnikov and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi.
These coming seasons are very exciting for both Teodor and MusicAeterna; in September the Perm Opera will present Purcell’s opera The Indian Queen, directed by Peter Sellars, in co-production with the Madrid Teatro Real, where the opera will be presented in November 2013. In October they will travel to the Ruhr Trienale Festival for performances of The Rite of Spring and in February 2014 MusicAeterna will tour a number of prestigious European venues, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Paris Cite de la Musique.
Last season Teodor Currentzis made his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and with Zurich Opera in a production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District; Teodor also returned to the Munich Philharmonic. The 2013-2014 season starts with an extensive European tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Teodor has a long standing and privileged relationship with Teatro Real, Madrid and returns every season. Future projects in Madrid include Wagner’s Tristian und Isolde, Verdi’s Don Carlos.
Previous highlights include a successful debut at Paris Opera in 2008 which led to Teodor returning in 2009 with a critically acclaimed production of Verdi’s Macbeth directed by Dmitry Tcherniakov; the International Festival Baden-Baden with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, directing the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra; Weinberg’s The Passenger at the Bregenz Festival with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre, with a new production of Berg’s Wozzeck. He returned there in autumn 2010 for the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and throughout the 2010/11 season for revival performances of both productions.
In 2006, combining his knowledge and passion for early music with contemporary composers and new music, Teodor started the Territoria Modern Art Festival, which in a short space of time has become the most prestigious and progressive annual music festival in Moscow.
Since 2012 Teodor Currentzis has been the Artistic Director of the International Diaghilev Festival in Perm, which has the aim of preserving and developing the traditions of the great impresario and promoter of Russian culture Sergei Pavlovitch Diaghilev. The programme of the festival includes the world premieres of operas and ballets, contemporary dance, drama theatre, art exhibitions, concerts of symphonic,music, chamber music, early music and jazz music, film retrospectives. Artists in residence of 2013 Diaghilev Festival were pianist and composer-postminimalist Anton Batagov, and radical Italian director, “unstoppable theatre innovator” Romeo Castellucci.
Teodor has received four prestigious Russian “Golden Mask” theatrical awards.
In 2013 the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre under Teodor Currentzis’s artstic direction received 17 nominations for the “Golden Mask” Award, more than any other theatre in Russia. The Artistic Director and Conductor of the Perm Theatre Teodor Currentzis is mentioned in the “Best Conductor” category four times: for Mozart’s opera Cosi fan tutte and Pascal Dusapin’s Medeamaterial, and for two ballets – Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Sergei Prokofiev’s Chout.
Born in Greece, Russia has become Teodor’s home since the beginning of the 1990s, when he studied conducting at the state conservatory of St. Petersburg, under the tutelage of Professor Ilya Musin, whose pupils, among others, were renowned conductors Odyseuss Dimitriadis, Valery Gergiev, and Semyon Bychkov.
MusicAeterna Chamber Choir of the Tchaikovsky Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre (Russia)
Principal Choirmaster:Vitaly Polonsky. Artistic Director:Teodor Currentzis The choir was formed in 2011 in Perm, with a repertoire that encompasses music of various styles and periods, with preference given to an authentic style of performance. The choir’s concerts include works by Baroque composers, 18th–20th century Russian choral music, and works by contemporary composers. Since the 2011/2012 season MusicAeterna has taken part in all the premieres at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, with some of its members performing solos.
The MusicAeterna Orchestra of the Tchaikovsky Perm Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
(Russia)
The MusicAeterna Orchestra is one of the most in-demand Russian orchestras in the field of period performance, and works just as successfully with 20th-century music. It was founded in 2004 in Novosibirsk by Teodor Currentzis. The orchestra has appeared with Currentzis in Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Baden-Baden, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Perm. The orchestra released three CDs between 2008 and 2010: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, and Mozart’s Requiem. The orchestra records exclusively on the Sony Classical label. During the 2012/2013 season the orchestra, under Teodor Currentzis, is recording a programme of works for Sony by French baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau and two Mozart operas – Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte – featuring international star soloists. Future plans include a recording of another Mozart masterpiece: the opera Don Giovanni.