Collaboration Brings Opera From Germany
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Lincoln Center Festival will present a new production of the 20th-century opera “Die Soldaten” (“Soldiers”) at the Park Avenue Armory in July. The production had its premiere in 2006 at the Ruhr Triennale — a festival, established by the incoming general manager of New York City Opera, Gérard Mortier, that stages performances of contemporary music and art in former industrial buildings in Germany’s Ruhr region. “Die Soldaten,” written in 1965 by the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, was performed in a former steelworks factory; the audience was seated on platforms, which were placed on a set of railroad tracks and moved throughout the performance. That effect will be reproduced in the Drill Hall of the Armory.
“Die Soldaten” had its American premiere at the Opera Company of Boston in 1982, and was produced by City Opera in 1991. The new production is directed by David Pountney, with the conductor Steven Sloane leading the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. The president of the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, Rebecca Robertson, has said that she intends for the Armory to fill a gap in the New York City cultural scene, presenting large-scale art, theatrical, and musical productions in a nontraditional setting. Mr. Mortier has said he wants to stage Olivier Messiaen’s “St. Francis of Assisi” there during his first season at City Opera, in 2009–10.
