HCA NEWS Hans Christian Andersen Opera Festival in 2005

Four of Odense's major cultural institutions will collaborate on staging a Hans Christian Andersen Opera Festival in August 2005.

By ms - H.C. Andersen 2005 - 23 June 2003

Four of Odense's major cultural institutions - the Funen Opera, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Theatre, the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense - will collaborate on staging a Hans Christian Andersen Opera Festival in August 2005, of which the H.C. Andersen 2005 Foundation will support two operas, Little Kirsten and The Nightingale.

"Generally, a project of this magnitude is completely beyond the scope of the conservatory, but the cooperation with the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation has facilitated the substitution of our annual ABAM orchestra seminar in 2005 with an opera production," says Principal of the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Bertel Krarup.

Little Kirsten
The romantic opera with medieval setting Little Kirsten will be staged as a co-production between the Funen Opera, the Odense Symphony Orchestra and the Odense Theatre. Subscription programmes of all three institutions apply.

The opera, with libretto by Hans Christian Andersen and music by the Danish composer J.P.E. Hartmann, will be staged in an unconventional, customised setting. The cast will feature international Danish names and a celebrated Danish conductor. It will be directed by Kasper Wilton and set designs will be by Lars Juhl.

The Nightingale
Igor Stravinsky's classic one-act opera The Nightingale is based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale by the same title.

The collaboration between the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, the Funen Opera and the Association of Baltic Academies of Music, ABAM (16 conservatories within the Baltic region) backs the grand staging of the opera classic The Nightingale with approx. 85 young international students in close partnership with approx. 50 from Funen.

The soloist singers, the choir, the conductor and the full symphony Orchestra are from the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music and the cooperating ABAM conservatories whereas the staging - including direction, set design, lighting design and technical handling - lies in the hands of the Funen Opera.


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