Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane
Christof Loy (stage director), Marc Albrecht (conductor) — With Sara Jakubiak (Heliane), Josef Wagner (the Ruler), Brian Jagde (the Stranger)
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Cast
Christof Loy — Stage director
Johannes Leiacker — Set designer
Barbara Drosihn — Costume designer
Olaf Winter — Lighting
Dorothea Hartmann — Dramaturgy
Thomas Jonigk — Dramaturgy
Sara Jakubiak — Heliane
Josef Wagner — The Ruler
Brian Jagde — The Stranger
Okka Von der Damerau — The Messenger
Derek Welton — The Doorman
Burkhard Ulrich — The Blind Judge
Gideon Poppe — The Young Man
Chor und Extra-chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Jeremy Bines — Chorus Master
Program notes
In his new production of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane)—voted Revival of the Year in Opernwelt—director Christof Loy sets the action in a strikingly lit wood-panelled hall early in the twentieth century. In period costumes, the stars evoke the dreamlike quality of Korngold’s music and Hans Müller-Einigen’s libretto, a delicate balance between religious and erotic undertones. The leads boast the combination of Wagnerian power and studied restraint that the music requires, with Brian Jagde’s (The Stranger) dynamism and stunning low notes a perfect complement to the vocal agility and rich timbre of Sara Jakubiak (Heliane).
With the world-class Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dutch conductor Mark Albrecht’s impressive interpretation of Korngold’s score brings out its Mahlerian influences—notably at the end of Act I, inspired by Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This triumphant production (the first audiovisual recording of the opera!) should reinvigorate interest in this undersung work that Korngold considered his finest, one of the final masterpieces of Viennese Romanticism.
