Mini-Opera “The Magical Pancake” at the Staatsoper Hamburg
With the extraordinary direction of Kent Nagano, on 22 December 2018 the Hamburg State Opera House staged the first of “The Magical Pancake “, mini-opera inspired by an ancient fairy tale of Northern Europe.
The mini-opera featured four soloists from the Opera Studio, eight instrumentalists from the Hamburg Opera Academy and a childrens choir conducted by Kai Schnabel.
Introduced and presented to the audience by a speech of John Neumeier, the twenty-minute fairy tale tells about an enchanted pancake, which, crossing woods and cities, after many adventures and meetings, arrives in a square, where it multiplies and manages to feed many children, giving happiness and joy. The scenery drawings were created by the team of German designer Peter Schmidt.
The music of Gloria Bruni, with a libretto by Freya Steinhagen and Eva-Maria Schattauer and with the orchestration of Lauro Ferrarini, has once again given emotions to adults and children, with an enthralling final aria.
“The twenty-minute mini opera format I was given for telling the story of “The Magical Pancake” was a major challenge; within that short time, it needed a musical development that could be followed by children, grab the interest of the adults and try and meet the standards of a world-renowned conductor like Maestro Kent Nagano.
Composing “The magic pancake” became almost the musical equivalent of trying to “square a circle”, but it was also great fun “.