Delitto e Dovere (Crime and Duty), a one-act opera, featuring music and libretto by Alberto E. Colla, makes its world premiere July 7 at the Festival di Spoleto. The story is loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime – A Study of Duty. 

The 60th edition of the Festival di Spoleto has commissioned Silvia Colasanti to compose a requiem in remembrance of the victims of last year’s earthquakes that rocked central Italy: Stringeranno nei pugni una cometa.

After twenty-five years since the publication of the last book on Franco Donatoni, the book Gravità senza peso brings together all the latest research into the works of this composer. The papers are in Italian, English and French. The book also includes a brief introduction by Pierre Boulez.

On June 15, 2017 Rolf Riehm celebrated his eightieth birthday. The two most recent monographies have been dedicated to his life and work as part of the “edition neue zeitschrift für musik”. In the following we present to you the preface written by Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich.

Bernhard Lang's new opera ParZeFool – Der Thumbe Thor was premiered on 4 June 2017 at the Wiener Festwochen. Find out more about the composition in this interview with Simone Young, who conducted the World Premiere, and in a selection of press reviews. 

On May 21, 2017, Heiner Goebbels’s seven-part orchestral cycle Surrogate Cities was performed at KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen at the Volkswagen plant in Hanover. The Ensemble Modern Orchestra, consisting of Ensemble Modern, musicians of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie, was conducted Ingo Metzmacher.

On our blog, our composers regularly introduce their favourite works from our catalogue. This time: Steffen Wick writes about Heiner Goebbels.

PROMETEO Tragedia dell’ascolto (Prometheus, a tragedy of listening) the masterpiece by Luigi Nono, with libretto by the philosopher Massimo Cacciari based on texts by Aeschylus, Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Hölderlin and others, is slated to be performed on May 26 at Parma’s Teatro Farnese (repeat performances May 27 and 28). This production, realized by Teatro Regio di Parma, will be using the recently published new edition, edited by André Richard and Marco Mazzolini.

Bernhard Lang's new opera ParZeFool – Der Thumbe Thor will be premiered on 4 June 2017 at the Wiener Festwochen staged by Jonathan Meese and conducted by Simone Young. Find out more about the composition in this interview.

Annette Schlünz's opera Tre Volti – Drei Blicke auf Liebe und Krieg based on a libretto by Ulrike Draesner was premiered on 28 April 2017 at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele.