No other type of performance offers such a complete and close-range encounter with the singer as an art song recital. Each song is a microcosm that encapsulates an entire world or a compelling life experience. Songs of different eras, countries and styles create an infinite range of moods. The singer usually chooses the repertoire in consultation with the pianist, resulting in a highly personal programme. Just experiencing the interplay between a singer and a skilled pianist often makes the recital worthwhile in its own right
Concert
Grandi Voci
Song recitals by great singers.
Duration
Varies per concert
Stage
Main Stage
Genre
Concert
Price
420–450 kr
Accessibility
Experience some of the very finest singers in the recital series Grandi Voci (Italian for ‘magnificent voices’). With a singer and piano in front of the safety curtain on the Main Stage, the sound is reflected perfectly, making the acoustics full and intimate at the same time.
Recital with Katarina Karnéus
Songs by Alma Mahler with Göteborg Opera Orchestra
Sunday 10 March at 12.30
Duration approx. 1 hour 15 min, no interval
In 1995, double Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus, a Swedish Court Singer, won what is perhaps the world’s best-known singing competition, the Cardiff Singer of the World. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera four years later. Since then, she has performed on the world’s foremost opera and concert stages and been awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal for outstanding service to the arts by H.M. the King of Sweden. Since 2012, she has worked with the Göteborg Opera, where she has sung a number of leading roles. In 2018, her interpretation of the title role in Bellini’s opera Norma won her Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize.
In this concert, Karnéus pays tribute to the Austrian composer Alma Mahler (1879–1964) by performing all of the composer’s published 16 Lieder. These evocative Lieder are set to existential texts by the great poets of the time and cover a range of moods from romantic melancholy and magical nature poetry to austere intensity. The Lieder were originally written for voice and piano, but are performed here in a version for a large chamber ensemble with musicians from the Göteborg Opera Orchestra.
Alma Mahler was born into an artistic family and spent her life moving freely in Vienna’s – and later America's – finest artistic circles. She began composing at an early age and also worked as a writer and artist. Her salons became part of musical life in Vienna, Los Angeles and New York. Throughout her life, she had passionate love relationships with prominent cultural figures.
Like countless other female composers, Alma Mahler was historically mainly known as the wife of her husband. Her first husband, Gustav Mahler, insisted that his future wife stop composing, which she did. She herself commented that this decision left a grievous wound in her soul which never healed. Towards the end of his life, her husband came to his senses and ensured that five of Alma Mahler’s Lieder were published.
After Gustav Mahler's death in 1911, Alma was married twice, first to Walter Gropius and then to the writer Franz Werfel who was of Jewish descent. The couple moved to the United States during World War II, but Alma returned to Vienna after Werfel’s death at the end of the war. However, she died in New York in 1964.
Performing
MEZZO-SOPRANO Katarina Karnéus
The Göteborg Opera Orchestra led by Dieter Schöning, concert master and conductor Martin Andersson.
Arrangment for chamber orchestra by Julian Reynold.
Refreshments
The café opens 1 hr 15 mins before the start of the permformance.
Johanna Wallroth
10 Sept 2023