The Munich Biennale (German: Münchener Biennale) is an opera festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers.[1][2]
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Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:
The whole story started with a query from the departmental head of the (Munich) cultural office ... whether I ... would be interested in considering creating some sort of civic music festival in Munich. After a period of time I suggested organizing something that had been lacking up until that point, something that also did not exist anywhere else in the world and yet was an urgent necessity – namely, a place where the young generation of composers interested in theatre ... could realize their ideas.[3]
Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed.[4] Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music.[5]
Peter Ruzicka took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene")[6] in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze.[7]
World premieres are marked as WP
| Premiere | Composer | Title | Libretto and source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 1988 | WP | Detlev Glanert | Leyla und Medjnun | Aras Ören and Peter Schneider, after the epic poem by Nizami |
| 03 Jun 1988 | WP | Gerd Kühr | Stallerhof | Franz Xaver Kroetz, after his own play |
| 04 Jun 1988 | WP | Adriana Hölszky | Bremer Freiheit | Thomas Körner, after the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| 17 Jun 1988 | WP | Mark-Anthony Turnage | Greek | the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play by Steven Berkoff |
| 26 Apr 1990 | WP | András Hamary | Seid still | José Vera Morales, after the play Tóték by István Örkény |
| 28 Apr 1990 | WP | Wolfgang von Schweinitz | Patmos | D. E. Sattler (de), after the Apocalypse of St John in Martin Luther's translation |
| 06 May 1990 | WP | Hans-Jürgen von Bose | 63: Dream Palace | the composer, after the novella by James Purdy |
| 14 May 1990 | WP | Michèle Reverdy | Le Précepteur | Hans-Ulrich Treichel (de), after the play Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz |
| 07 May 1992 | [8] | Violeta Dinescu | Eréndira | Monika Rothmaier, after the story The Unbelievable and Tragic Story of Simple Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez |
| 29 Apr 1992 | WP | Jorge Liderman | Antigona Furiosa | the composer, after the drama by Griselda Gambaro |
| 27 May 1992 | [9] | Giorgio Battistelli | Teorema | the composer, loosely after the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini |
| 16 May 1992 | WP | Gerhard Stäbler | Sünde.Fall.Beil | Andreas Lechner (de), after the drama Catherine Howard by Alexandre Dumas père |
| 22 May 1992 | [10] | Param Vir | Broken Strings | David Rudkin, after the Buddhist story Guttil Jatak |
| 22 May 1992 | [10] | Param Vir | Snatched by the Gods | William Radice, after the poem Debatar Gras by Rabindranath Tagore |
| 01 May 1994 | WP | Tania León | Scourge of Hyacinths | the composer, after the radio play by Wole Soyinka |
| 19 May 1994 | WP | Benedict Mason | Playing Away | Howard Brenton |
| 04 Dec 1996 | WP | Michael Obst | Solaris | the composer, after the novel by Stanislaw Lem |
| 09 Dec 1996 | WP | Hanna Kulenty | The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams | Paul Goodwin |
| 14 Apr 1997 | WP | Roderick Watkins | The Juniper Tree | Patricia Debney, after the folk tale by the Brothers Grimm |
| 19 Apr 1998 | WP | Toshio Hosokawa | Vision of Lear | Tadashi Suzuki, after his stage play The Tale of Lear |
| 21 Apr 1998 | WP | Sandeep Bhagwati | Ramanujan | the composer, after the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) |
| 25 Apr 1998 | WP | Jan Müller-Wieland | Komödie ohne Titel | the composer, after the drama Comedia sin título by Federico García Lorca |
| 19 Apr 1999 | WP | Mauricio Sotelo | De Amore | Peter Mussbach (de) |
| 10 May 2000 | WP | Chaya Czernowin | Pnima ... ins Innere | |
| 27 Apr 2002 | WP | André Werner | Marlowe: Der Jude von Malta | the composer, after the play The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe |
| 12 May 2004 | WP | Johannes Maria Staud | Berenice | Durs Grünbein, after Edgar Allan Poe |
| 25 May 2004 | WP | Brian Ferneyhough | Shadowtime | Charles Bernstein |
| 09 May 2006 | WP | Aureliano Cattaneo | La Philosophie dans le labyrinthe | Edoardo Sanguineti, after the Greek myth of the Minotaur |
| 18 May 2006 | WP | José María Sánchez-Verdú | GRAMMA | the composer |
| 17 Apr 2008 | WP | Enno Poppe | Arbeit Nahrung Wohnung | Marcel Beyer, loosely after the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe |
| 18 Apr 2008 | WP | Klaus Lang | Die Architektur des Regens | after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami (c1363–c1443) |
| 23 Apr 2008 | WP | Carola Bauckholt | hellhörig | (none) |
| 30 Apr 2008 | WP | Jens Joneleit | Piero – Ende der Nacht | Michael Herrschel, loosely after the novel Die Rote by Alfred Andersch |
| 27 Apr 2010 | WP | Philipp Maintz | Maldoror | Thomas Fiedler, after Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont |
| 28 Apr 2010 | WP | Márton Illés | Die weiße Fürstin | after the first draft of the dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke |
| 05 May 2010 | WP | Klaus Schedl | Tilt[11] | Roland Quitt, after the diary of Sir Walter Raleigh |
| 05 May 2010 | WP | Tato Taborda | Der Einsturz des Himmels[11] | Roland Quitt, after the book La Chute du Ciel by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert |
| 05 May 2010 | WP | Ludger Brummer (web) | In Erwartung[11] | Peter Weibel |
| 09 May 2010 | WP | Lin Wang | Die Quelle | the composer and Can Xue, after a story by Can Xue |
| 03 May 2012 | WP[12] | Sarah Nemtsov | L'Absence | the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès |
| 05 May 2012 | WP[12] | Eunyoung Esther Kim (web) | Mama Dolorosa | Yona Kim |
| 16 May 2012 | WP[12] | Arnulf Herrmann | Wasser | Nico Bleutge (lyrics) |
The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Detlev Glanert, Gerd Kühr, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Param Vir, Toshio Hosokawa and Violeta Dinescu.
The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level.[13]