Symphony Concert N° 11
Mitwirkende
- Daniele Gatti Conductor
- Michèle Losier Alto
- Ladies of the State Opera Chorus Dresden
- Semperoper Children’s Choir
gespielte Werke
Gustav Mahler
- Symphony No. 3 in d minor
Like its predecessors, Mahler’s Third also has a narrative programme. But in contrast to the »Resurrection Symphony«, which describes inner processes, the Third shifts the focus outwards to explore the whole world in ever larger circles. Mahler called this musical cosmology »a summer’s midday dream«, transporting the listener from soulless matter to plants, animals, people and angels, all the way up to divine love, reflected in the massive, wordless finale. With its huge orchestration and unprecedented length of over 90 minutes, this work confidently shattered all previous symphonic conventions: »For me, writing a symphony means creating an entire universe with all the technical means at my disposal«.
- Sunday8.6.2511:00 UhrSemperoperTicket price:
43 – 78 € - Monday9.6.2519:00 UhrSemperoperTicket price:
43 – 78 € - Tuesday10.6.2519:00 UhrSemperoperTicket price:
16 – 78 €
A concert introduction will be offered 45 minutes before the beginning of each performance in the opera cellar of the Semperoper.
Duration approx. 115 min
Daniele Gatti
Daniele Gatti has been Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden since the 2024/2025 season. He made his debut with the orchestra in February 2000 at the invitation of the then Principal Conductor, Giuseppe Sinopoli, with a programme featuring works by Mendelssohn, Hindemith and Brahms. Over the following years, the Italian maestro returned several times to Dresden. Gatti’s mastery of the Staatskapelle’s core repertoire, his visionary interpretations and keen sense of the sound and unique traditions of this historic ensemble are an assurance of outstanding concert experiences. In his second season, he continues the Staatskapelle’s first complete Mahler cycle with the »Vienna Years«.
In addition to his post in Dresden, Daniele Gatti is also Chief Conductor of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Music Director of the Orchestra Mozart and, since 2016, Artistic Advisor to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In the same year, he took up a teaching post at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.
Born in Milan in 1961, Gatti studied composition and orchestra conducting at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in his home city. He made his debut at La Scala at the age of 27. This was followed by permanent engagements with leading music institutions such as the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London’s Royal Opera House, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. He was subsequently Principal Conductor of the Orchestre National de France (2008-2016), the Zurich Opera House (2009-2012) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam (2016-2018), as well as Music Director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma until 2022. Gatti is also a popular guest conductor, appearing for example with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala.
Equally in demand in the field of opera, Daniele Gatti has conducted major new productions such as Robert Carsen’s staging of »Falstaff« in London, Milan and Amsterdam, »Parsifal«, staged by Stefan Herheim, which opened the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, as well as a production of the same opera by François Girard at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and four operas at the Salzburg Festival: Richard Strauss’s »Elektra«, Puccini’s »La bohème«, Wagner’s »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg« and Verdi’s »Il trovatore«.
In 2008, he conducted »Don Carlo« to open the new season at Milan’s La Scala as well as »Lohengrin«, »Lulu«, »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg«, »Falstaff« and »Wozzeck«. As part of Verdi’s birthday celebrations in 2013, he conducted »La traviata«, again launching the new season at La Scala.
He has opened several seasons of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with works such as Wagner’s »Tristan und Isolde«, Berlioz’s »La damnation de Faust«, Verdi’s »Rigoletto« and »Les vêpres siciliennes«, Rossini’s »Il barbiere di Siviglia« and the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s »Julius Caesar«. In 2023, he conducted Verdi’s »Falstaff« and all of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies as part of the 85th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival.
In 2024, he conducted the opening concerts of the new seasons of both the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Vienna Philharmonic before going on tour with both ensembles through Europe’s music capitals. In summer 2025, he will return to the Bayreuth Festival for the new production of »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg«.
Daniele Gatti’s extensive discography testifies to his broad repertoire. For Sony Classical, he has recorded works by Debussy and Stravinsky with the Orchestre National de France as well as a DVD of Wagner’s »Parsifal«, performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. As part of the »RCO Live« series, he conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in recordings of Berlioz’s »Symphonie fantastique«, several Mahler symphonies, a DVD of Stravinsky’s »Le sacre du printemps« also featuring Debussy’s »Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune« and »La mer«, a DVD of Strauss’s »Salome« at the Dutch National Opera and a CD of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 paired with the Prelude and »Karfreitagszauber« from Wagner’s »Parsifal«. In 2019, C-Major released a DVD of Wagner’s »Tristan und Isolde« under the baton of Daniele Gatti, staged at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
Daniele Gatti is a three-time winner of the »Franco Abbiati« Prize as Best Conductor, chosen by Italy’s music critics, and in 2016 was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French Republic for his work as Music Director of the Orchestre National de France. He also holds the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Ladies of the State Opera Chorus Dresden
The Dresden Opera Chorus was founded on 8 October 1817 by royal proclamation. The issuing of this decree by Frederick Augustus I of Saxony can be largely attributed to the efforts of the recently engaged court Kapellmeister, Carl Maria von Weber, who was commissioned in that year to establish a German opera company to complement the Italian opera long performed in Dresden. Weber demanded the establishment of a »permanent theatre choir« able to meet the rising demands of the new opera repertoire.
Over the following decades and centuries, the Saxon State Opera Chorus developed into a first-class and highly sought-after ensemble thanks to the many outstanding figures who maintained its operatic roots while carefully nurturing its artistic development. The list of former directors includes Joseph Metzner, Wilhelm Fischer, Karl Maria Pembaur, Ernst Hintze, Gerhart Wüstner, Hans Peter Müller-Sybel, Hans-Dieter Pflüger and Matthias Brauer. They all cultivated the unique sound of the State Opera Chorus, a quality particularly influenced by the ensemble’s active concert schedule. An homogeneous and elegant tone, sensitive piano singing infused with a dense and rich timbre, these are the essential characteristics of the State Opera Chorus.
Semperoper Children’s Choir
The Semperoper Children’s Choir is an integral part of the opera company and can be frequently enjoyed in a wide range of pieces, including Puccini’s »La bohème« and »Tosca«, Humperdinck’s »Hansel and Gretel«, Strauss’s »Der Rosenkavalier« and Verdi’s »Otello«. Primary schoolchildren (from their second year) rehearse here regularly in the full choir as well as in smaller ensembles while receiving dedicated instruction in singing and stage performance.
The history of the Children’s Choir goes back to the 1950s. Initially, the ensemble was led by choral directors of the Dresden State Opera such as Ernst Hintze, Gerhard Wüstner and Franz-Peter Müller-Sybel. Werner Kitz and Werner Czerny were followed in 1994 by Andreas Heinze, who directed the choir for twenty years. Since 2014, the Children’s Choir has been led by Dresden choral director Claudia Sebastian-Bertsch.
In addition to performances at the opera house, the choir is involved in Semper Zwei productions such as »Puss in Boots« by Caesar Cui or »Prinz Bussel« by Johannes Wulff-Woesten. The Children’s Choir of the Semperoper Dresden has also appeared several times in concert, such as in 2018 at the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, conducted by Christian Thielemann. In addition to their demanding opera and concert programme, the children work together with their director on their own concert repertoire, consisting of folk song and madrigals, contemporary compositions as well as international songs. In the spring of 2019, a selection of this repertoire was recorded for CD release. In 2013, the Semperoper Children’s Choir was awarded the Semperoper Foundation Prize in recognition of its artistic achievements.
