18.01.2024

LAURA AIKIN sings the Countess de la Roche in Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten"

Bernd Alois Zimmermann's opera "Die Soldaten" was long considered almost impossible to produce considering the huge amount of work involved. On 15 February 1965, "Die Soldaten" was premiered by the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln – and with great success! In collaboration with the Cologne Opera, the Gürzenich-Orchester under François-Xavier Roth, together with the Spanish director Calixto Bieito, are developing Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "totale Theater" as an unparalleled concert hall installation, which will be performed in the Cologne Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Philharmonie de Paris.

After celebrating a triumph as "Marie" at the Salzburg Festival in 2012, Laura Aikin can now be seen for the first time as the duplicitous Countess de la Roche in this highly complex operatic spectacle.
 

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Die Soldaten

Tómas Tómasson, Wesener, Ein Galantierhändler in Lille
Emiliy Hindrichs, Marie, her daughter
Judith Thielsen, Charlotte, her daughter
Kismara Pezzati, Wesener's elderly mother
Nikolay Borchev, Stolzius, Cloth merchants in Armentières
Alexandra Ionis, Stolzius' mother
Lucas Singer, Obrist, Count of Spannheim
Martin Koch, Desportes, a nobleman
John Heuzenroeder, Pirzel, acaptain
Oliver Zwarg, Eisenhardt, a field preacher
Miljenko Turk, Haudy
Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger, Mary
Seungjick Kim, Young Woo Kim und Artjom Korotkov, three young officers
Laura Aikin, Countess de la Roche
Alexander Kaimbacher, the young Count, his son
Alexander Fedin, the Countess de la Roche's servant
Ján Rusko, the young midshipman
Frederik Schauhoff, the drunken officer
Heiko Köpke, Carsten Mainz und Anthony Sandle, three captains

Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
Francois-Xavier Roth, Musical Director
Calixto Bieito, Director
Paul Jeukendrup, Sound