Cassandra
The Ballroom, Bohemian National Hall, Czech Centre
321 East, 73rd Street,
New York NY 10021
With the Argento Chamber Ensemble. Conductor : Michel Galante.
February 6th-7th 2014.
Cassandra
Monodrama by Michael Jarrell
Monodrama for actress and instrumental ensemble with electronics.
After the recitation by Christa Wolf in the adaptation by Gerhard Wolf.
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel.
www.tamuseum.org
DER NEUER MERKER Wien/Vienna
Opera and ballet in Vienna and all over the world
(p. 52 l 04/2013) Germany.
12th Berlin Festival “MaerzMusik” (15th – 24th March 2013)
New compositions of music theatre and for percussion.
Exceptional here was the post-expressionist Monodrama
for actress and instrumental ensemble with electronics by the Swiss Michael Jarrell (b. 1958) in a production by Nimrod Opera Zurich.An interpretation better suited to the work than Pamela Hunter’s staging Jarrell could not have wished for.
Phenomenal how Anna Clementi - this utterly musical actress with her virtuoso performing voice - mastered the imposing vocal cascades, how she also illustrated the more intimate text passages.
At her side the ensemble United Berlin - well known as qualified performers of new music - who under the direction of Andrea Pestalozza performed the score distinguished by its diverse, vehement sound visions.
Both the opera and the performance were one of the highlights of this year’s MaerzMusik!
Dietrich Bretz
Herausragend war da des Schweizers Michael Jarrell (geb. 1958) postex-pressionistisches Monodrama
für Sprecherin und Instrumentalensemble mit Elektronik (1993/94) in eider Produktion der Nimrod Opera Zürich.Eine werkdienlichere Interpretation als diese Inszenierung
Pamela Hunters hätte sich Jarrell kaum wünschen können. Phänomenal, wie Anna Clementi, diese durch und durch musikalische Schauspielerin, mit ihrer virtuos spielenden Stimme die imposanten Wortaskaden bewältigte, wie sie aber auch die eher intimeren Textpassagen nuanciert ausleuchtete. Ihr zur Seite stand das in neuer Musik bestens bewährte ensemble unitedberlin, das under Andrea Pestalozzas Führung die vielschichtige,
von vehementen Klangvisionen bestimmte Partitur
differenziert ausformte.
Gleichwohl bezeichneten Werk und Aufführung einen Höhepunkt der diesjährigen MaerzMusik!
Arnold Schoenberg must be turning over in his crypt. Cassandra, by the Swiss composer Michael Jarrell, would have been the music and pictures he would have died for.
Schoenberg knew what he wanted in his music for (a never-created) film. He came close in the nightmarishErwartung, though he always needed a singer for this monodrama, and Cassandra is pure speaking. He came even closer in Survivor from Warsaw, but he never could have imagined the mixture of video and live camera to make this phantasmagoria come alive.
He knew the metaphorical binding of legend and truth in Moses und Aron, but that was never completed. Michael Jarrell, though, in his orchestral mixture of fable, stream-of-consciousness, and the agony of an ancient Cassandra in the horrors of Communist East Berlin, created a terrifying picture last night in the Bohemian National Hall.
The production of this monodrama by Nimrod Opera Zurich needed one great actor, and in the Swedish-Italian eclectic Anna Clementi, he has his star. Read more here...
THE NEW YORKER February 10, 2014
Jarrell, a Swiss composer of high reputation, got some valuable New York exposure when the Philharmonic presented his music on one of it’s “Contact!” concerts. This monodrama for actress, electronics and large chamber ensemble is a major effort, with a strong visual element (using film and live video) and a libretto by German writer Christa Wolf, Anna Chementi performs it in a production by Nimrod Opera Zurich, with Argento Chamber Ensemble, conducted Michel Galante. Bohemian National Hall, 321 E. 73rd St. New York.