Pocket Opera Company
The Pocket Opera Company (commonly abbreviated POC) is Germany's oldest independent mobile opera company. It was founded in 1974 under the name "Opernstudio Nürnberg e.V." by Swiss stage director Peter Beat Wyrsch and Welsh conductor David Seaman in Nuremberg, Germany, as an alternative off-theater.[1]. Their intention was to make opera more accessible for the general public, escaping the formality and chic of traditional opera houses at the time and thereby offering a new take on the art form itself. Core concepts of the POC's philosophy include the idea of reducing an opera to its essentials, transforming it into a "pocketable" production that can be staged at unusual locations/venues, also often integrating contemporary, non-classical music and cultural practices[2][3]. Through the decades, the Pocket Opera Company has focused on different types of operatic work ranging from forgotten rarities to unconventional takes on classics of the repertoire and commissioned contemporary compositions.[4][5]
History[edit]
After starting out with a production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1974, Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein marked the ensemble's first considerable local success a year later before a version of Heinrich Marschner's Der Vampyr put the company on the international map with a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1979 where it received the BBC Festival Prize[6][7]. In the following years, the POC performed in multiple cities around the globe, including Barcelona, New York City, Mexico City and Wellington, NZ[8] with operas like Lucrezia Borgia (opera)[9].
Alongside director Peter Beat Wyrsch and conductor David Seaman, American soprano Elizabeth Kingdon[10][11], who had previously sung at Nuremberg's public opera house for many years, emerged as one of the POC's most prominent artists.
Next to productions based on the traditional repertoire, the POC also staged commissioned new operatic works and world premieres from composers like Michel Meynaud, Peter Kiesewetter, Franz Hummel and Friedrich Jaecker. In the wake of this development, Italian composer and conductor Andrea Molino took over the newly created position of musical director for contemporary opera in 1997. His opera The Smiling Carcass about the controversial photographer Oliviero Toscani premiered in 1999 [12].
One production that received significant coverage nationally and internationally at the time was "Der Ring"[13][14][15], which amalgamated the four parts of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen into a single opera of about 3-and-a-half hours. David Seaman's condensed score of the epic cycle is still used nowadays for Ring productions of other companies like the Berkeley Opera (2004)[16], West Edge Opera (2010)[17] and Minnesota Concert Opera (2013)[18].
When Wyrsch took the position of general director at the Theater Biel-Solothurn, Switzerland, in 2007[19], conductor Franz Killer became the new artistic director - he had already taken over from David Seaman as musical director a few years earlier. Subsequently, the company's focus shifted towards baroque era rarities like Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo ("Petrolio"[20]), Jean-Joseph Mouret's Les Amours de Ragonde ("Love me tender!"[21]) or Stefano Landi's Il Sant'Alessio ("Ho(w)ly Trip"[22]).
In 2012, a short version of Richard Wagner's opera Der Fliegende Holländer dubbed "Wash House Adventure" was staged in an actual laundromat and became an instant hit among the public. It has received annual revivals since then and now ranks as the Pocket Opera Company's most played production of all time[23].
For the Richard Wagner anniversary year 2013, the POC completed his mostly forgotten Singspiel fragment Männerlist größer als Frauenlist and staged it as a world premiere in a circus tent[24][25].
Recent notable productions include the first German staging of the first South American opera La púrpura de la rosa by Tomás de Torrejon y Velacso[26], Peter von Winter's "La Grotta di Calypso"[27] in a public indoor swimming pool and a version of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser featuring the popular Ukrainian cross-over band Dakh Daughters[28].
The Pocket Opera Company receives public cultural funding from the City of Nuremberg, the Middle Franconia administrative district and the Free State of Bavaria. Political patrons include the former German Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Renate Schmidt and the former Minister President of Bavaria, Günther Beckstein[29]
Artistic and Musical Directors[edit]
Artistic Directors
- 1974-2007 Peter Beat Wyrsch
- 2007-present Franz Killer
Musical Directors
- 1974-2003 David Seaman
- 1997-2003 Andrea Molino (Musical Director for contemporary music theater)
- 2003-present Franz Killer
Sources[edit]
- Kapp, Hans-Jörg: "Vom Bestellen lokaler Klangfelder – Freies Musiktheater im deutschsprachigen Raum" in: Die Freien Darstellenden Künste in Deutschland. Diskurse – Entwicklungen – Perspektiven, Eckhard Mittelstädt and Alexander Pinto (eds.), transcript, Bielefeld 2013.
- Rebstock, Matthias: Freies Musiktheater in Europa / Independent Music Theatre in Europe: Vier Fallstudien / Four Case Studies, ITI Germany and Matthias Rebstock (eds.), transcript, Bielefeld 2020.
- Rebstock, Matthias: "Varieties of Independent Music Theatre in Europe". Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe. Structures – Aesthetics – Cultural Policy, Manfred Brauneck and ITI Germany (eds.), transcript, Bielefeld 2017.
- Schulze, Mathias and Peter B. Wyrsch: Pocket Opera Company – Dokumentation 1974-1989. Pocket Opera Company (ed.), Nuremberg 1989.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Die Nürnberger Pocket Opera Company und ihr künstlerischer Leiter" [On the trail of new venues - The Nuremberg Pocket Opera Company and its artistic director]. www.OperUndTanz.de.
- ↑ "Beweglich, verspielt, schlagkräftig" [Agile, playful, powerful]. NZZ.ch.
- ↑ Beer, Monika. "Dort, wo das Leben tobt: die Nürnberger Pocket Opera Company feiert ihren 25. Geburtstag" ["Where life is raging: the Nuremberg Pocket Opera Company is celebrating its 25th birthday"] - Opernwelt 9/10 1999
- ↑ Mittelstädt, Eckhard; Pinto, Alexander (2014-03-31). Die Freien Darstellenden Künste in Deutschland: Diskurse - Entwicklungen - Perspektiven [The fine performing arts in Germany: Discourses - Developments - Perspectives] (in Deutsch). transcript Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8394-1853-6. Search this book on
- ↑ Rebstock, Matthias (2017), Brauneck, Manfred; Germany, ITI, eds., "Varieties of Independent Music Theatre in Europe", Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe, Structures – Aesthetics – Cultural Policy, Transcript Verlag, pp. 523–574, ISBN 978-3-8376-3243-9, JSTOR j.ctv1xxssd.10, retrieved 2021-01-08
- ↑ Murray, David. "Bedside manner" - Sunday Telegraph 26 August 1979
- ↑ Barber, Lionel. "Der Vamypr. Traverse" - The Scotsman 24 August 1979
- ↑ Schulze, Mathias and Peter B. Wyrsch: Pocket Opera Company – Dokumentation 1974-1989. Pocket Opera Company (ed.), Nuremberg 1989.
- ↑ Navarro Arisa, J.J. "Con el montaje de 'Lucrezia Borgia', un grupo alemán occidental actualiza la estética de la ópera clásica" - El Pais 12 October 1983
- ↑ Dalton, Joseph (January 27, 2021). "Celebrated opera singer dies, had Schenectady childhood". Times Union.
- ↑ "Nürnberg trauert um Sopranistin Elizabeth Kingdon-Grünwald" [Nuremberg mourns the soprano Elizabeth Kingdon-Grünwald]. BR24. January 25, 2021.
- ↑ Umbach, Klaus. "Wutgeheul im Land des Lächelns"["Howl of anger in the land of smiles"] - Der Spiegel 16/1999 https://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/12138075
- ↑ Kimerley, Nick. "A Ring of confidence" - The Independent, 28 May 1999 - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/opera-a-ring-of-confidence-1096380.html
- ↑ Millington, Barry. "Wagner cut to the core" - The Times, 28 May 1999
- ↑ Buening, Eleonore. "Drachenland lebt" - Die Zeit 47/1996 https://www.zeit.de/1996/47/Drachenland_lebt
- ↑ "Berkeley Opera Mounts Brilliant Wagner Adaptation. Category: Features from The Berkeley Daily Planet". www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ↑ "Berkeley (Now West Edge) Opera Conquers Big, Miniature Ring". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ↑ "'The Mini-Ring' review Wagner's classic, trimmed by 12 hours, still soars". Twin Cities. 2013-09-13. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ↑ Saner, Fränzi Rütti. "Theater - Direktor Theater Solothurn: "Es war aufregender als in Nürnberg"" [Theater director Theater Solothurn: "It was more exciting than in Nuremberg"]. Solothurner Zeitung.
- ↑ "Radiobeiträge Kultur" [Radio contributions culture]. www.radio-z.net.
- ↑ "Es geht um die Liebe - und wie!". www.nordbayern.de.
- ↑ "Von der Vergänglichkeit der Seifenblase: ein "Ho(w)ly Trip" mit Stefano Landi und der Pocket Opera Company Nürnberg" [The transience of the soap bubble: a "Ho (w) ly trip" with Stefano Landi and the Pocket Opera Company Nuremberg]. www.nmz.de.
- ↑ "Wash House Adventure: Wagners Holländer weder mangelhaft noch ausgelaugt" [Wash House Adventure: Wagner's Dutchman neither poor nor worn out]. KulturAspekte. November 30, 2018.
- ↑ "Die Deutsche Bühne". Die Deutsche Bühne.
- ↑ "Trailer: Wagner's Lost "Opera": Männerlist größer als Frauenlist - Soon On DVD". The Wagnerian.
- ↑ "Nürnberg: Eifersucht kann auch komisch sein" [Nuremberg: jealousy can also be funny]. donaukurier.de.
- ↑ "Opernspaß im Langwasserbad" [Opera fun in the Nuremburg Pool]. www.nordbayern.de.
- ↑ "Pocket Opera bringt Thannhäuser". Mittelbayerische Zeitung. 12 October 2017.
- ↑ "Förderer" [Become a member of the POC!]. Pocket Opera Company (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-01-08.
External links[edit]
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