Repertoire

The concert is organized by the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the National Opera of Ukraine with support from Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine.

World-known opera star Matthias Goerne (bass baritone, Germany) will perform in Kyiv for the first time! The singer is one of the greatest musicians of today, and recognized performer of German and Austrian opera and chamber music. For his first concert in Kyiv, Matthias Goerne chose a program from the works of the Richard Wagner — composer, whose music occupies a special place in the repertoire of this extraordinary performer. There will be performed selected fragments from the opera “The Flying Dutchman”, music dramas “Tristan and Isolde” and “The Valkyrie”.

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Igor Shavruk, the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor of the Odesa National Opera and Ballet Theatre, will perform on the same stage with Matthias Goerne. In 2021, for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra presented a concert version of “Tristan and Isolde” in co-production with the National Opera of Ukraine, and took part in the opera staging at the prestigious German festival Musikfestspiele Königswinkel with the participation of world-renowned Wagner performers.

On March 4, Kyiv audiences will have a unique opportunity to hear not only the voice of the famous Wagner singer Matthias Goerne, but also the music, which the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra recently captivated German composer’s admirers with. “Tristan and Isolde” has a reputation as one of the most difficult to perform scores. For a long time, the singers were even afraid of this music, and now to join the performance of “Tristan and Isolde” is a sign of high skill and professionalism of the performers.

“Tristan and Isolde” is also well-known for its radical novelty among musical and theatrical opuses. During the Matthias Goerne concert listeners will be also able to hear excerpts from “The Flying Dutchman”, which began the creative search for the bravest opera reformer Richard Wagner on the way to transforming opera into “total artwork” (“Gesamtkunstwerk”). Finally, there will be episodes from “The Valkyrie”, the second opera of Wagner’s tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”, including the hit, known to all without exception: “Ride of the Valkyries”.

Matthias Goerne is a German bass baritone who studied with 20th-century legends — Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau. He had a debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1997 with Papageno (Mozart’s “Magic Flute”), and now Goerne performs on the world’s leading stages: the Royal Opera House in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris National Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, etc. His repertoire includes the main parts of Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck”, Béla Bartók’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”, Paul Hindemith’s “Matthias the Painter”, and Aribert Reimanʼs “Lear”. Matthias Goerne is a recognized performer of parts from Wagnerʼs operas “Tannhäuser”, “Parsifal”, “Tristan and Isolde”, “The Flying Dutchman”. The four-time Grammy-nominated singer has won the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017, ICMA Award, ECHO Klassik 2017 in the “Singer of the Year” category, and has been an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London since 2001.