Delirio

Following on from his response to, and enlargement of, Monteverdi’s COMBATIMENTO DI TRANCREDI E CLORINDA in 2017 for the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, Zad Moultaka has turned his attention to an early work by Georg Friedrich Händel and created DELIRIO, a work of musical theatre for four singers and a small ensemble based on the virtuoso solo cantata “Il delirio amoroso”. In Händel’s cantata Clori descends to Hades intending to lead her lover, Tirsi, to the Elysian Fields. Gradually it dawns on the listener that Clori’s love was unrequited, that it was only a figment of her imagination and there may have never been a Tirsi in the first place. Zad Moultaka and director Wolfgang Nägele were interested in intensifying the uncertainties of the storyline. After an extended period as assistant to Hans Neuenfels, Nägele first made his name directing productions in Bielefeld, Hildesheim and at the Munich Staatsoper. He won the Tischlerei Prize at the prestigious RING Awards.

Canadian-Lebanese author Hyam Yared has expanded on Händel’s story, drawing on Clori’s uncertainty and bereft state. Clori’s path to Tirsi is blocked by the ferryman and coastal watchman. The underworld she is searching for, they say, is an illusion; Tirsi does not exist. Händel’s music provides the anchor for the evening, ever-present as a background echo.

Soprano Flurina Stucki heads the cast. A stipendiary of the opera house, she has already impressed audiences as Donna Anna. In the upcoming season she joins the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Bass baritone Paull-Anthony Keightley, tenor Matthew Peña and countertenor Guilhelm Terrail round off the cast. The young Swedish conductor Christian Karlsen, a specialist in New Music, makes his debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

DELIRIO
Georg Friedrich Händel / Zad Moultaka

World premiere: June 4, 2019
June 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 2019

Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

A reworking of Händel’s IL DELIRIO AMOROSO
With a new libretto by Hyam Yared
1 hour 15 mins / no interval 

Conductor: Christian Karlsen
Director: Wolfgang Nägele
Set design, costumes: Hannah König
Dramaturg: Lars Gebhardt
with Flurina Stucki, Paull-Anthony Keightley, Matthew Peña, Guilhelm Terrail