The Blind Spot - Goethe and women
Julian Prégardien, tenor
Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano

Lieder by Franz Schubert and others
Following the two concerts that took place under the title ‘The blind spot’ as part of the Schwetzingen Festival 2025, Julian Prégardien's exploration of the theme of ‘Goethe and women’ continues. After all, Goethe's long and passionate life provides plenty of material for further programmes that look behind the ‘blind spot’ of history and provide a glimpse of important women in Goethe's life and work.

Marie Luise Werneburg, soprano
Patricia Nolz, mezzo-soprano
Lucile Richardot, alto
Nick Pritchard, tenor
Robert Pohlers, tenor
Volker Arndt, tenor
Frederick Long, bass 
Johannes Lang, organist of St. Thomas
 
Thomanerchor Leipzig
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Andreas Reize, conductor

Marie-Sophie Pollak, soprano
Concerto Köln
Max Volbers, musical direction, recorder, harpsichord
Prof. Dr. Michael Maul, moderation

Benjamin Britten: War Requiem op. 66

Elena Stikhina, soprano
Julien Behr, tenor
Florian Boesch, bass

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Chœur de Radio France
Maîtrise de Radio France
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito KV 621

Jeremy Ovenden, Tito
Aphrodite Patoulidou, Vitellia
Anna El-Khashem, Servilia
Maite Beaumont, Sesto
Ambroisine Bré, Annio
Adrien Fournaison, Publio
Les Talens, Lyriques
Christophe Rousset, direction

Elena Kats-Chernin: Schneewittchen und die 77 Zwerge

Corina Koller, Schneewittchen
Leah Bedenko, Stiefmutter
Ted Black, Prinz
Michael Großschädl, Richard III., ein weißer Hase
Nikita Ivasechko, der Spiegel
Will Frost, Herr Müller | Jäger | Herr Meier | Koch

Stefan Birnhuber, Musical direction
Ulises Maino, Musical direction
Nicole Claudia Weber, Artistic direction
Friedrich Eggert, Stage & Light
Alfred Mayerhofer, Costume design
Katharina John, Dramaturgy
Andrea Fournier, Singschul'

Grazer Philharmoniker
Singschul’ der Oper Graz
Statisterie der Oper Graz

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito KV 621

Jeremy Ovenden, Tito
Aphrodite Patoulidou, Vitellia
Anna El-Khashem, Servilia
Maite Beaumont, Sesto
Ambroisine Bré, Annio
Adrien Fournaison, Publio
Les Talens, Lyriques
Christophe Rousset, direction

Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Andreas Schager, Siegfried
Attila Mokus, Gunther
Günther Groissböck, Hagen
Georg Nigl, Alberich
Camilla Nylund, Brünnhilde
Regine Hangler, Gutrune
Szilvia Vörös, Waltraute

Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor
Sven-Eric Bechtolf, stage director
Rolf Glittenberg, staging
Marianne Glittenberg, costumes

Julian Prégardien, tenor
Bryan Benner, baritone and guitar
Gabriel Rollinson, baritone
Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg, piano

What if Franz Schubert had travelled to America not only in books? This morning, Julian Prégardien uses songs, letters and diary entries to create a dialogue between Franz Schubert's spiritual landscapes and the panoramic images of nature painted by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. Gabriel Rollinson discovers the impressive songs of 20th-century African-American composer William Grant Still, before singer-songwriter and leader of the band The Erlkings, Bryan Benner, blurs the boundaries between Schubert songs and American songs. The self-proclaimed ‘American-born troubadour’ has been an avowed Viennese for years and is extremely successful with his respectful English translations of art songs.

Julian Prégardien, tenor
Bryan Benner, baritone and guitar
Gabriel Rollinson, baritone
Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg, piano
Alumni of the Heidelberger Frühling Lied Academy

The collective concert is part of the theme day ‘Schubert's American Dream’, which opens an imaginary window into the composer's world of ideas on the first Sunday of the festival. On his deathbed, Franz Schubert dreams of travelling to America with James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking novels – in search of freedom, individual self-determination and the better world he repeatedly depicts musically in his songs.