In autumn 2020, Anne Schwanewilms will sing in the US: the soprano will take on the role of Elsa in a new production of Richard Wagner’s „Lohengrin“ at the Dallas Opera. French stage director Louis Désiré is responsible for the production, Dallas Opera music director Emmanuel Villaume has the musical direction. Premiere: 30 October 2020, performances: 1, 4 and 7 November 2020.
On 29 February 2020 Jacques Offenbach’s opera-bouffe „Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein” with Anne Schwanewilms in the title role will have its premiere at the Semperoper in Dresden. Josef E. Köpplinger, specialist for entertaining music theatre, is the stage director of this new production, Jonathan Darlington will conduct the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. Performances on 29 February 2020 and 3, 6, 20, 24, 26 March 2020.
„Wow! (…) To set a tone in a delicate pianissimo and then take it back a little further, to the edge of silence, without the voice crumbling or losing its brilliance – and still keeping an eye on the great arch and the flow of language. What Anne Schwanewilms conjured into one’s ears in „Zwielicht“ from Robert Schumann’s „Liederkreis“ sounded like a textbook for the highest art of song singing. Because the soprano, supported by pianist Malcolm Martineau, was able to detect even the finest nuances of the songs and could always rely on an astonishing voice control. (…) With a wide range of sound shades, she and the splendid pianist Malcolm Martineau conjured up the flight of the soul on a starry moonlit night, they told of secret tears of melancholy or mourned about a beloved who had long since died.”
Marcus Stäbler, Hamburger Abendblatt, 25 October 2019
New on this website: a video with impressions of the recital in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie on 23 October 2019. Anne Schwanewilms sings Lieder by Claude Debussy and Othmar Schoeck. Piano: Malcolm Martineau
With an annual opera gala, the Semperoper Foundation honours outstanding artistic personalities, talented young artists and ensembles of international renown who belong to or are closely associated with the Semperoper Dresden. Anne Schwanewilms will present the gala on 17 November 2019. This year Jón Vallejo, first soloist of the Semperoper Ballet receives an award. Soloists of the Semperoper opera ensemble will present an aria programme, Omer Meir Wellber has the musical direction.
On the day before her recital in Hamburg, Anne Schwanewilms will be a guest at the Elbphilharmonie Kulturcafé. With Ulrich von Saurma she talks about the art of song interpretation, Strauss opera roles and her artistic plans.
Elbphilharmonie Kulturcafé am Mönkebergbrunnen, Barkhof 3, 20095 Hamburg.
Tuesday, 22 October 2019, 6 p.m., free entry.
„Recitals are my staging“, says Anne Schwanewilms. „Here I can create something from the beginning, with the simplest means – the voice and the piano.“ On 23 October 2019 she will be a guest at the Elbphilharmonie for the first time. Her programme includes Lieder by Robert Schumann, Othmar Schoeck, Henri Duparc and Claude Debussy. The Scottish pianist Malcom Martineau will accompany her.
Lieder by Robert Schumann, Othmar Schoeck, Hugo Wolf and Gustav Mahler are on the programme of the song matinee by Anne Schwanewilms and pianist Daniel Heide. The concert on 15 September 2019 at the Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt starts at 11.00 a.m.
„When Anne Schwanewilms reflects on herself with a truly crystalline timbre, a fragile and a strong Empress in the second act, Strauß’s nervously contrapuntally condensed string replacement draws a modern portrait of a woman, as Alfred Hitchcock later did in his films.“
Jan Brachmann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 September 2918
„Opposite Merbeth stands the Empress of Anne Schwanewilms, who can express the ethereality of this mythical creature as well as her unconditional will to become a human being. Schwanewilm’s lyrical soprano has attained a grip in its mature time that does not allow a note, a fine movement of this part to get lost.“
Matthias Nöther, Berliner Morgenpost, 3 September 2019
„Anne Schwanewilms as empress – a moment of glory! She had her greatest singing and speaking moments in the third act, where she was credibly relieved of the humanizing grounding outside her hitherto imperial and peculiar detachment from ‚Below‘“.
Andre Sokolwksi, www.freitag.de, 2 September 2019
On 7 September 2019 at 7.05 p.m., Deutschlandfunk Kultur will broadcast a recording of the enthusiastically received concert performance of Richard Strauss’ fairytale opera “Die Frau ohne Schatten” with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Anne Schwanewilms as Empress.