Shanghai – December 16/Paris – January 21/Leipzig – June 23
“Bach‘s final large-scale vocal composition presents itself to us as the composer‘s artistic legacy. Like no other of Bach‘s works, the B-minor Mass is a consummation of his writing for the voice……“ Christoph Wolff
Begun in 1715 as a 1-part mass for the Dresden court, Bach came back to the score throughout his life, ultimately completing it in 1749 shortly before his death. Its manuscript, preserved in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek joins Beethoven’s 9th symphony as the only musical works to be included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.. Joining Opera Fuoco’s orchestra and three young artists on this tour to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall ~ where the piece will be heard for the first time in 100 years, the Paris Philharmonie and Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, are soloists Andreas Scholl, Markus Werba, Laurent Naouri and the Tölzer Knabenchor.
The Tales of Hoffman bears well the name of its genre: opéra fantastique. The last work of the famed operetta composer, Jacques Offenbach, Hoffman transcends many labels and pre-conceived notions: it is serious as it is comic, dark as it is light, popular as it is introspective and abstract