Between 1975 and 1998, under Director Heiner Bruns and
dramaturge Alexander Gruber, the Bielefeld Opera became internationally renowned as the
Bielefelder Opernwunder ("Bielefeld Opera miracle"), producing a series of successful rediscoveries and premiere performances. The team, which included John Dew as stage director, Gottfried Pilz as stage designer; Rainer Koch, David de Villiers, and
Geoffrey Moull as conductors, helped Bielefeld Opera attract attention of the national German and British press; critics from
Gramophone, the
Financial Times, and New York (
Opera News) became regular visitors.
Programming philosophy In addition to operas like
Lohengrin,
Così fan tutte,
Der Rosenkavalier and
Aida, several dramaturgical
leitmotifs were to be found in the programming of the
Opernwunder years of the Bruns era. A number of operas from the
Entartete Kunst (
degenerate art) period were performed for the first time since being banned by the Nazis in the 1930s. Publishers and opera house staff recreated lost orchestral materials for productions of
Bohuslav Martinů's
Julietta,
Karol Rathaus'
Fremde Erde, and
Ernst Toch's
Der Fächer. German romantic operas that had been lost since the 19th century were given new life, thus the rediscovery of
Robert Schumann's
Genoveva,
Louis Spohr's
Faust and Carl Maria von Weber's
Die drei Pintos for the operatic stage. Some operas from abroad received their European premieres in Bielefeld, such as
John Adams'
Nixon in China and
Shulamit Ran's
Der Dybbuk. The Bielefeld Opera also produced a number of world premieres, including
Nikolai Karetnikov's
Till Eulenspiegel and
Das stille Zimmer.
Operatic productions Nearly half of all new productions of the Bielefeld Opera between 1980 and 1998 were of innovative operas, including: •
Luigi Cherubini:
Médée (Cherubini) •
Max Brand: Machinist Hopkins •
Paul Hindemith:
Neues vom Tage •
Rudi Stephan:
Die ersten Menschen • Franz Schreker:
Irrelohe • Franz Schreker:
Der Schmied von Gent • Franz Schreker:
Der singende Teufel • Erich Wolfgang Korngold:
Das Wunder der Heliane •
Karol Rathaus:
Fremde Erde •
André Grétry:
Zemire und Azor •
Thea Musgrave:
Maria Stuart •
George Antheil:
Transatlantik •
Erwin Dressel:
Armer Columbus •
Leonard Bernstein:
A Quiet Place •
Frederick Delius:
Fennimore and Gerda •
Giacomo Meyerbeer:
Der Prophet •
Ernst Krenek:
Der Sprung über den Schatten • Ernst Krenek:
Die Zwingburg • Ernst Krenek:
Der Diktator •
Rudolf Mors:
Der Kreidekreis (1983, premiere) •
Fromental Halévy:
Die Jüdin •
John Adams:
Nixon in China •
Douglas Moore:
Die Ballade von Baby Doe •
Bohuslav Martinů:
Julietta •
Robert Schumann:
Genoveva •
Louis Spohr:
Faust •
Roberto Gerhard:
The Duenna •
Nikolai Karetnikov:
Till Eulenspiegel (1993, premiere) •
Judith Weir:
Der blonde Eckbert •
Ernst Toch:
Der Fächer •
Carl Maria von Weber/
Gustav Mahler:
Die drei Pintos •
Theo Loevendie:
Esmée (about
Esmée van Eeghen) •
Luigi Dallapiccola:
Il prigioniero •
Kurt Weill:
Die Bürgschaft •
Shulamit Ran:
Der Dybbuk • Michael Hirsch:
Das stille Zimmer CD recordings The Bielefeld Opera has produced the following complete opera recordings: • • • • == References ==