La Monnaie / De Munt LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT
© Florian Mueller
Opera

Il Prigioniero
& Das Gehege
Luigi Dallapiccola, Wolfgang Rihm

Presentation
Opera

‘Hope: the final torture...’ Ever since a jailer called him ‘brother’, a prisoner has hope that he will be freed. The door of his cell, however, opens to reveal a long corridor that leads to the stake – the illusion of freedom thus becomes, for him, the ultimate torture. At La Monnaie, the conductor Franck Ollu and the stage director Andrea Breth recently gave us an acclaimed version of Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm, a composer with whom they now collaborate again. Alongside the 20th century masterpiece Il prigioniero by Luigi Dallapiccola, they give us Das Gehege by Rihm, in which a woman frees an eagle from its cage before killing it. The flamboyant lyricism of Dallapiccola is followed by the poetic twilight world of Rihm. The two works form a diptych that explores the ambivalent relationship between the victim and the executioner as well as general questions about personal freedom and the possible dead ends in our so-called free world.

* Warning. During the performance of Das Gehege there is repeated use of stroboscopic effects. We would like to warn people who are sensitive to this kind of lighting effect that they may experience some discomfort or in extreme cases risk suffering a seizure.

Synopsis

Il prigioniero and Das Gehege: two stories about violence, captivity, and ambivalent relations between victims and jailers. When a warden calls him ‘brother’, the prisoner in Il prigioniero hopes he will be freed. The door of his cell is left ajar, but opens onto a long corridor that leads straight to the stake. The illusion of freedom turns out to be one last form of torture before his execution. In Das Gehege [‘The Cage’], a woman frees an eagle from its cage at night. The bird has an erotic fascination for the woman, who fantasises about being lacerated by his talons. Once the raptor is free, however, he turns out to be old and feeble and she immediately decides to shoot him.

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Dates & tickets

 – 

Location

La Monnaie

Running time

2 hours (with intermission)

Language

Sung in Italian and German
Surtitles in Dutch and French

Presentation

Pre-performance talks 30' before the start of the performances

Prices

Ticket prices from € 10 to € 149
-30 years old: € 10 / € 50
-15 years old: € 10 / € 25

Streaming

broadcast on Klara
24.02.2018

broadcast on Musiq3
03.03.2018

streaming on
www.lamonnaie.be/en/streaming
20.02 > 12.03.2018

New production

Season tickets
Gallery

Gallery

© B. Uhlig
© B. Uhlig
© B. Uhlig
© B. Uhlig
© B. Uhlig
© B. Uhlig
Il prigioniero & Das Gehege — Introduction par Isabelle Dumont by La Monnaie De Munt
Dates & tickets

Dates

Cast
Cast

ConductorFRANCK OLLU
DirectorANDREA BRETH

Set designMARTIN ZEHETGRUBER
CostumesNINA VON MECHOW
LightingALEXANDER KOPPELMANN
DramaturgySERGIO MORABITO
Chorus masterMARTINO FAGGIANI

IL PRIGIONIERO

La MadreÁNGELES BLANCAS GULÍN
Il PrigionieroGEORG NIGL
Il Carceriere, Il Grande InquisitoreJOHN GRAHAM-HALL
Primo SacerdoteJULIAN HUBBARD
Secondo SacerdoteGUILLAUME ANTOINE

DAS GEHEGE

Die FrauÁNGELES BLANCAS GULÍN

La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
MM Academy led by Benoît Giaux

ProductionLA MONNAIE / DE MUNT
Co-productionOPER STUTTGART

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