Sound rapture at the Festspielhaus Hellerau: The Dresden Music Festival hit the nerve of the audience with a performance of the opera "Einstein on the Beach" by Philip Glass. After three and a half hours of performance without an interval, the applause in the Festspielhaus Hellerau was unending. The US singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega ("Luka") performed the text passages of a work that has cult status and was performed in concert in Dresden.
Choir, musicians and Vega impressed the audience
The Collegium Vocale Gent was a recognized world-class choir. The Belgian ensemble Ictus under the direction of Tom de Cock was also brilliant. "Einstein on the Beach" was recorded with this line-up in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie in 2022. Alexandre Fostier's sound direction made a significant contribution to the listening experience in Dresden.
The opera has no continuous plot. It makes reference to its namesake Einstein with several violin solos, among other things. The physicist Albert Einstein was a passionate amateur violinist. "When I was little, Einstein was one of my heroes", wrote the composer in his book "Music by Philip Glass": "If, like me, you grew up after the end of the war, it was impossible not to know who Einstein was. The empathic yet catastrophic beginnings of the nuclear age had made atomic energy the most discussed topic of the day."
