THE SCHUBERT PROJECT
BRINGING SCHUBERT’S VIENNA TO OXFORD

10 October – 1 November 2014

Many of the world’s greatest musicians arrive in Oxford this October to take part in The Schubert Project – the UK’s first complete performance of Schubert’s songs, and a world first in the scope of a single festival. Around this unparalleled body of work – some 650 songs by the age of just 31 – the city of Oxford will be buzzing with other Lieder Festival events planned to illuminate the songs and bring to life the world that Schubert inhabited.

The Festival is launched with a stellar cast of tenors and baritones (John Mark Ainsley, Joshua Ellicott, James Gilchrist,Daniel Norman / Neal Davies, William Dazeley, Stephan Loges, Christopher Maltman) joined by mezzo sopranoSarah Connolly for songs, partsongs and the exquisite serenade, Zögernd leise (10 Oct).  In more than 60 concerts, singers include Sir Thomas Allen (25 Oct), Ian Bostridge (16 Oct), Christiane Karg (21 Oct), Susan Gritton (26 Oct),Dietrich Henschel (17 Oct), Robert Holl (28 Oct), Wolfgang Holzmair (30 Oct), Sophie Karthäuser (11 Oct), Angelika Kirchschlager (29 Oct), Jonathan Lemalu (1 Nov), Mark Padmore (24 Oct), Christoph Prégardien (19 Oct),Maximilian Schmitt (28 Oct), Sylvia Schwartz (11 Oct), Birgid Steinberger (11 Oct), Kate Royal (13 Oct) andRoderick Williams (15 Oct), alongside emerging stars including Allan Clayton, Anna Lucia Richter, Martin Haessler, Christoph Pohl and many others. They will be joined by the world’s leading pianists, including Thomas Adès, Eugene Asti, Imogen Cooper, Julius Drake, Bengt Forsberg, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles &Justus Zeyen. In addition, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Doric String Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble will be performing key chamber works.

The Bodleian Library will show several Schubert manuscripts; the Ashmolean Museum will host live music events and a specially-devised audio guide; there will be four performances of  a new play by Iain Burnside; Schubert’s sacred musicwill resound around college chapels; the Botanic Gardens will collaborate on a study event looking at Schubert’s relationship with nature; a pop-up theatre will recreate a famous Schubert gathering; and local restaurants will feature Viennese food and wine. Masterclasses, talks and workshops abound, and the Festival will stretch to all corners of the city from Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre and Europe’s oldest concert hall – the Holywell Music Room – to the contemporary settings of the O’Reilly Theatre, the Phoenix Cinema and the recently-restored Ashmolean Museum.

Nicholas Hytner’s critically-acclaimed 1985 production of Xerxes, the oldest production in ENO’s repertoire, returns this season with an all-British cast reinforcing ENO’s “unrivalled reputation as the world’s leading house for Handel” (The Sunday Times).

Winner of the 1985 Olivier Award for outstanding new production, Xerxes features spectacular designs by David Fielding with lighting by Paul Pyant evoking Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in the 18^th century.

Michael Hofstetter leads the ENO chorus and orchestra following his successful house debut conducting Peter Konwitschny’s La traviata in 2013.

Over the past 29 years, the title role of Xerxes has been played by some of the world’s most outstanding mezzo-sopranos including Ann Murray in 1985 and 1988, Louise Winter in 1994 and Sarah Connolly in 1998 and 2002, whose international career was launched by the role. For this revival, internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Alice Coote sings the title role for the first time.

Counter tenor Andrew Watts plays Arsamenes. Soprano Sarah Tynan sings the role of Romilda. Sarah was an ENO Harewood Artist and later became an ENO Company Principal, a position she held until 2007. In their first Handelian roles ENO Harewood Artists Rhian Lois and Catherine Young are Atalanta (Romilda’s naughty sister) and Amastris (Xerxes jilted fiancée) respectively. Rhian has recently played Adele in Christopher Alden’s Die Fledermaus in September 2013 and First Niece in David Alden’s critically acclaimed revival of Peter Grimes in January 2014. Catherine took part in ENO Baylis Opera Works programme in 2009-2010, and in September 2010 became an ENO Harewood Artist. She made her professional debut with ENO in June 2011 as Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Bass Neal Davies sings the role of Ariodates, Romilda’s father. Previous roles for ENO include Kolenaty in The Makropoulos Case in 2010. He has also sung at The Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Baritone Adrian Powter plays Elviro, Arsamenes’s servant.

Xerxes opens at the London Coliseum on Monday 15 September for 6 performances – 15, 20, 24, 26 September and 1, 3 October at 7.00pm.

Welsh National Opera’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, David Pountney, has been awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class. He was presented the award by the President of the Republic Heinz Fisher in a ceremony which took place in the opening of the Bregenz Festival.

The award honours Austrians and foreign leading figures who have “distinguished themselves and earned general acclaim through especially superior creative and commendable services in the areas of the sciences or the arts” and is conferred by the Federal President.

This year marks David Pountney’s last year as Artistic Director of the Bregenz Festival, a position he has held since 2004

David Pountney says, “It is a great honour to be recognised by a State which has such an astoundingly rich cultural inheritance. I have worked on various Austrian stages from the Wiener Staatsoper to Linz whose new opera house opened with my production of Philip Glass’s new opera “Spüren der Verirrten” last year, but my main focus has been on the Bregenz Festival where I made my debut in 1989, and have enjoyed 10 marvellous years as Intendant since 2004.”

David Pountney has already been made a Commander of the British Empire and a Chevalier in the French Ordre des Arts et Lettres and was last year presented with the Cavalier’s Cross of the Order of Merit for his contribution to the promotion of Polish culture.