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A performance of Alban Berg's opera recorded at the Salzburg Festival in 2011. The opera, dark and satirical in tone, charts the story of the rise and fall of a femme fatale, from life as a society hostess to prostitution and, eventually, a bloody death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. French soprano Patricia Petibon heads a strong European cast, while German conductor Marc Albrecht leads the Wiener Philharmoniker.



• Vera Nemirova’s challenging production of Berg’s operatic masterpiece Lulu won critical acclaim when first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, and was successfully repeated in 2011, when the production was filmed for DVD.

• Supporting Nemirova’s powerful vision of corruption, decadence and death were the highly praised set designs by the young German artist Daniel Richter.

• Musically the production was led with style and assurance by the brilliant young German conductor Marc Albrecht, currently director of the Netherlands Opera. Singing Lulu with allure and passion was the lauded French soprano Patricia Petibon, whose charms griped an outstanding cast of top European singers.

• Lulu is a very rarely performed work, which was also left unfinished by the composer. This performance includes the missing 3rd act, which was completed by Friedrich Cerha, winner of the Salzburg Music Award 2010.


CAST
Lulu – Patricia Petibon
Countess Geschwitz – Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
The Painter / A Negro – Pavol Breslik
A Theatrical Dresser / A High-School Boy / A Groom – Cora Burggraaf
Dr. Schön / Jack the Ripper – Michael Volle
Alwa – Thomas Piffka
Schigolch – Franz Grundheber
An Animal Tamer / Rodrigo – Thomas Johannes Mayer
The Prince / The Manservant – Heinz Zednik
The Marquis – Andreas Conrad
The Theatre Manger / The Banker – Martin Tzonev
A Fifteen-year-old girl – Emilie Pictet
Her Mother – Cornelia Wulkopf

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Marc Albrecht, conductor

Vera Nemirova, stage director
Daniel Richter, set designer
Klaus Noack, costume designer
Manfred Voss, lighting designer

REVIEW
Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

Musical matters were in very capable hands. The German conductor Marc Albrecht drew a consistently plush, urgent and taut performance from the Vienna Philharmonic. [...] Ms. Nemirovas daring and engrossing production earned her, and the production team, a sustained ovation. --Anthony Tommasini, NY Times

Those who value Berg's opera for its visceral denunciation of capitalist excels and moral hypocrisy will find much to provoke and intrigue them in this Salzburg production, with Petibon's Lulu required listening in any case. --Richard Whitehouse, International Record Review

Unusually, 'Vera Nemirova's Salzburg Festival production [of Lulu] not only retains the [usually omitted Scene 1, Act 3], but gives it unusual exuberance by placing the singers within the audience... Musically there is plenty to admire... I was won over.' --Arnold Whittall, Gramophone Awards 2012 Issue

Almost all of the major protagonists are powerfully drawn… But the real stars of this superb performance are undoubtedly the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Marc Albrecht, who bring a glorious richness, warmth and emotional intensity to Berg's astonishing score. 5*/5*

Works on This Recording
Lulu by Alban Berg
Performers: Patricia Petibon, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, Pavol Breslik, Cora Burggraaf, Michael Volle, Thomas Piffka
Conductor: Marc Albrecht
Orchestra/Ensemble: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929-1935; Austria