Opera Chic

A Very Henze Weekend: Hans & Ollie's Excellent Adventure @ the Barbican

At first sight a dapper, small, elderly German gentleman and a giant hairy bearded sweet bear of a middle aged Scotsman don't really have much in common. But then we're talking about Hans Werner Henze, the world's greatest living composer, and composer Oliver Knussen, the new BBC Symphony's Artist In Residence: Henze has been for many years very generous toward Ollie's very deserving work as a composer, and Knussen, in return, has become the principal champion of Henze's work in the English speaking world (props to Ian Bostridge, too; Simon Rattle gets another honorable mention, but then he's an emigré to Germany now so he's kinda preaching to the converted there).

Now, London finally bows down to the superior man, and has organized for next January a delicious Henze Weekend @ the Barbican that immediately appears as one of the most important musical events of 2010, with two UK premieres. Of Henze's latest opera Phaedra (that opened in Berlin and then was shown, in a different production, at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino -- Opera Chic was there to pay her respects to the great man) and of Henze's Elogium Musicum, his elegy for his late partner of more than 40 years, Fausto Moroni with Latin text by leading Classics scholar Franco Serpa. Elogium Musicum will be introduced on January 16, 2010, Oliver Knussen conducting in the the world's most musical concrete bunker. Mysterious, haunting Phaedra will grace the Barbican on January 17, 2010, in a concert performance. Be there or be lame.

Ollie & Kalle's Southbank Shenanigans

OC freely admits that she has a weakness for Oliver Knussen, that big sweet bear of a man, fellow Curb Your Enthusiasm fan, fellow Hans Werner Henze fan (he's also a good friend of the greatest living composer and wonderful conductor of his works, whereas OC has only had the privilege to meet HWH briefly). It's therefore a pleasure to see that Ollie is more or less running the Stockhausen festival that just began in London. Because face it by0tches, "KLANG" has taken over Southbank and there's nothing you can do about it!

Ollie & Kalle BFF&E: Oliver Knussen Pays Hommage To Karlheinz Stockhausen

There was something deliciously absurd -- and Stockhausen himself would have loved it, we think -- in the way the news of Karlheinz Stockhausen's death came to the foyer of la Scala exactly during intermission at la prima, when the nightmarish fauna of rich people, politicians, socialites aggrieved by their bad plastic surgery, minor TV personalities, skanky escorts, cabana boys, agents, publicists, friends of friends of singers managers, dealers, and various hangers-on learned the news of the great innovator's passing.

The debate -- "genius or charlatan?", that always struck OC as being beside the point, since the two categories aren't  and have never been mutually exclusive -- didn't really start because in that most conservative night in that most conservative of opera houses (despite the rare moments of trendy, occasional experimentation in the 1970s) the peoples of la prima, still trying to digest their Wagner, were mostly kinda, huh, yea, Stockhausen, bring teh noize lol klang klang lol.

One of the deeper moments of analysis came when someone said something like "Huh, Stockhausen wrote like, pieces that lasted for days,  lol". And it's true and everything ridiculous you can say about Stockhausen is probably true, as well, but the point that almost everybody misses -- or chooses to ignore -- is that Stockhausen right in the middle of that big ole mess that is his body of work has composed music of incredible, blinding beauty. Certainly superior to most of his contemporaries -- especially some of the gloomier ones.

The good news now come thanks to that sweet bear of a man, Oliver Knussen (we hereby admit our pro-Ollie bias: he is an admirer and friend of Hans Werner Henze, and if you like HWH, well, you're fine by OC):

London’s Southbank Centre has announced plans for a festival to celebrate the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, who died in December.

The week-long event, which opens on November 1, will be curated by Oliver Knussen, to whom Stockhausen had entrusted the performance of what turned out to be the German composer’s last work, Zodiac. This will be one of several UK premieres during the week, along with several pieces from the KLANG cycle including Glanz for ensemble and Freude for two Harps. Other performances include Mantra, Stimmung and Trans.