10
Opera
American Lulu overall concept and interpretation of Alban Berg’s opera lulu by Olga Neuwirth
Scottish Opera and The Opera Group Sung in English Lulu Angel Blue Eleanor Jacqui Dankworth Dr Bloom Donald Maxwell Clarence Robert Winslade Anderson Jimmy Jonathan Stoughton Painter Paul Curievici Athlete Simon Wilding Professor/Banker/Commissioner Paul Reeves
‘Neuwirth is a shrewd composer with a bold imagination.’ financial times
Gerry Cornelius Conductor John Fulljames Director Magda Willi Designer Finn Ross Video designer Guy Hoare Lighting designer
Seductress, victim, manipulator: Lulu lives off men as both tortured and torturer, purveyor of ecstasy and angel of death. Caught up in greedy games and seedy schemes, and surrounded by lovers driven to despair, Lulu makes an inexorable rise to the highest levels of power, money and fame. But her descent is just as swift. Twenty years on, as the scarred Lulu looks back on her life, she faces a squalid history of sex, murder and violence. Award-winning Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth has radically reworked Alban Berg’s unfinished 1934 opera for the 21st century, setting it against the backdrop of the US civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and transporting audiences to the smoky jazz clubs of the Deep South. Neuwirth re-interprets Berg’s score for a jazz-inspired ‘Las Vegas’-style ensemble while also integrating her own distinctive voice to make a sound world that casts new light on the whole opera. This new production is conducted by leading contemporary music specialist Gerry Cornelius and staged by the acclaimed British director John Fulljames, with The Orchestra of Scottish Opera.
Friday 30 August & Saturday 31 August 7.15pm King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
A co-production with The Opera Group, Scottish Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele and Young Vic in association with the London Sinfonietta.
Tickets £35 £28 £25 £20 £15 1 hour 40 minutes approximately
Co-commissioned by The Opera Group and Komische Oper Berlin.
eif.co.uk/americanlulu