The Munich Biennale (German: '''Münchener Biennale''') is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers.[1] [2]
Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:
Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed.[3] Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music.[4] See also Klangspuren.
Peter Ruzicka took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene")[5] in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze.[6]
The composers Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott took over as joint artistic directors of the Biennale, starting in 2016.[7] Their approach to curation further expanded the festival's remit beyond opera, to reflect an 'expanded composition term' and the 'open field' of new music theatre which spans '[f]rom new opera to scenic installation, from minimalized artistic interventions in municipal spaces to composed performance'.[8]
Katrin Beck and Manuela Kerer took over as joint artistic directors of the Biennale, starting in 2026.[9]
World premieres are marked as WP
| Premiere | class=unsortable | Composer | Title | class=unsortable | Libretto and source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 1988 | WP | Detlev Glanert | Leyla und Medjnun | Aras Ören and Peter Schneider, after the epic poem by Nizami | ||
| 3 Jun 1988 | WP | Gerd Kühr | Stallerhof | Franz Xaver Kroetz, after his own play | ||
| 4 Jun 1988 | WP | Bremer Freiheit | , after the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |||
| 17 Jun 1988 | WP | Mark-Anthony Turnage | Greek | the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play by Steven Berkoff | ||
| 26 Apr 1990 | WP | András Hamary | Seid still | José Vera Morales, after the play Tóték by István Örkény | ||
| 28 Apr 1990 | WP | Wolfgang von Schweinitz | Patmos | , after the Apocalypse of St John in Martin Luther's translation | ||
| 6 May 1990 | WP | Hans-Jürgen von Bose | 63: Dream Palace | the composer, after the novella by James Purdy | ||
| 14 May 1990 | WP | Michèle Reverdy | Le Précepteur | Hans-Ulrich Treichel, after the play Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz | ||
| 7 May 1992 | [10] | Violeta Dinescu | Eréndira | Monika Rothmaier, after the story The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez | ||
| 29 Apr 1992 | WP | Jorge Liderman | Antigona Furiosa | the composer, after the drama by Griselda Gambaro | ||
| 27 May 1992 | [11] | Giorgio Battistelli | Teorema | the composer, loosely after the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini | ||
| 16 May 1992 | WP | Gerhard Stäbler | Sünde.Fall.Beil | , after the drama Catherine Howard by Alexandre Dumas père | ||
| 22 May 1992 | [12] | Param Vir | Broken Strings | David Rudkin, after the Buddhist story Guttil Jatak | ||
| 22 May 1992 | Param Vir | Snatched by the Gods | William Radice, after the poem Debatar Gras by Rabindranath Tagore | |||
| 1 May 1994 | WP | Tania León | Scourge of Hyacinths | the composer, after the radio play by Wole Soyinka | ||
| 19 May 1994 | WP | Benedict Mason | Playing Away | Howard Brenton | ||
| 4 Dec 1996 | WP | Michael Obst | Solaris | the composer, after the novel by Stanislaw Lem | ||
| 9 Dec 1996 | WP | Hanna Kulenty | The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams | Paul Goodwin | ||
| 14 Apr 1997 | WP | Roderick Watkins | The Juniper Tree | Patricia Debney, after the folk tale by the Brothers Grimm | ||
| 19 Apr 1998 | WP | Toshio Hosokawa | Vision of Lear | Tadashi Suzuki, after his stage play The Tale of Lear | ||
| 21 Apr 1998 | WP | Sandeep Bhagwati | Ramanujan | the composer, after the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) | ||
| 25 Apr 1998 | WP | Jan Müller-Wieland | German: Komödie ohne Titel | the composer, after the drama Spanish; Castilian: [[Comedia sin título]] by Federico García Lorca | ||
| 19 Apr 1999 | WP | Mauricio Sotelo | De Amore | |||
| 10 May 2000 | WP | Chaya Czernowin | Pnima ... ins Innere | |||
| 27 Apr 2002 | WP | André Werner | Marlowe: Der Jude von Malta | the composer, after the play The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe | ||
| 3 May 2002 | WP | Manfred Stahnke | Orpheus Kristall | Simone Homem de Mello | ||
| 12 May 2004 | WP | Johannes Maria Staud | Berenice | Durs Grünbein, after Edgar Allan Poe | ||
| 25 May 2004 | WP | Brian Ferneyhough | Shadowtime | Charles Bernstein | ||
| 9 May 2006 | WP | Aureliano Cattaneo | La Philosophie dans le labyrinthe | Edoardo Sanguineti, after the Greek myth of the Minotaur | ||
| 18 May 2006 | WP | José María Sánchez-Verdú | GRAMMA | the composer | ||
| 17 Apr 2008 | WP | Enno Poppe | Arbeit Nahrung Wohnung | Marcel Beyer, loosely after the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe | ||
| 18 Apr 2008 | WP | Klaus Lang | Die Architektur des Regens | after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami (c1363–c1443) | ||
| 23 Apr 2008 | WP | Carola Bauckholt | hellhörig | (none) | ||
| 30 Apr 2008 | WP | Jens Joneleit | Piero – Ende der Nacht | Michael Herrschel, loosely after the novel Die Rote by Alfred Andersch | ||
| 27 Apr 2010 | WP | Philipp Maintz | Maldoror | Thomas Fiedler, after Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont | ||
| 28 Apr 2010 | WP | Márton Illés | Die weiße Fürstin | after the first draft of the dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke | ||
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Klaus Schedl | Tilt[13] | Roland Quitt, after the diary of Sir Walter Raleigh | ||
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Tato Taborda | Der Einsturz des Himmels | Roland Quitt, after the book La Chute du Ciel by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert | ||
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Ludger Brummer (web) | In Erwartung | Peter Weibel | ||
| 9 May 2010 | WP | Lin Wang | Die Quelle | the composer and Can Xue, after a story "the Double Life" by Can Xue | ||
| 3 May 2012 | WP | Sarah Nemtsov | L'Absence | the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès | ||
| 5 May 2012 | WP | Eunyoung Esther Kim (web) | Mama Dolorosa | Yona Kim | ||
| 16 May 2012 | WP | Arnulf Herrmann | Wasser | Nico Bleutge (lyrics) | ||
| 7 May 2014 | WP[14] | Marko Nikodijević | Vivier | , after the life and death of Claude Vivier | ||
| 8 May 2014 | WP | Samy Moussa (web) | Vastation | Toby Litt | ||
| 11 May 2014 | Claude Vivier | Kopernikus | opéra-rituel de mort, libretto by the composer | |||
| 17 May 2014 | WP | Dieter Schnebel | Utopien | |||
| 22 May 2014 | WP | Héctor Parra | Das geopferte Leben | Marie NDiaye | ||
The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Detlev Glanert, Gerd Kühr, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Param Vir, Toshio Hosokawa and Violeta Dinescu.
The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level.[15]
NotesSources