“I’m interested in works and characters that have something to say to us today, even though they speak to us from a different era,” says Artist in Residence Vera-Lotte Boecker. Overtures by Dvořák and Beethoven frame her multifaceted opening concert with the Konzerthausorchester, which she begins with “Lulu’s Song” from one of her favourite roles: “Alban Berg’s ‘Lulu’ follows the rules of twelve-tone music, yet it is deeply emotional and, to me, heart-wrenchingly moving. The subject matter could hardly be more relevant today.”

An enchanting natural atmosphere and wonderful melodies, in turn, characterize Dvořák’s famous “Song to the Moon” from the fairy-tale opera “Rusalka”, while Unsuk Chin’s second opera, “The Dark Side of the Moon” (2024/25), tells a 21st-century Faustian tale in which the girl Miriel tries in vain to save a scientist. Beethoven’s strong female character, Leonore, on the other hand, succeeds in freeing her husband Florestan from prison.