AUSSEER BAROCKTAGE in collaboration with
MUSIKUNIVERSITÄT MOZARTEUM SALZBURG
DER WASSERMANN VOM GRUNDLSEE
Music Vanni Moretto
Libretto Stefano Simone Pintor
Concept & Project Management Dr. Verena Frey
ARTISTIC TEAM
Musical direction Vanni Moretto
Stage direction Andreas Weirich
Choir direction Hans Jandl
CAST
Friedl Jeffrey Herminghaus
Anton Vladimir Šlepec
Gunde Judith Gallmetzer
Der Wassermann Máté Herczeg
Das Salzmädchen Florentina Serles
Chor
TOUR
The opera will be performed by talented young European singers in cooperation with the Mozarteum University Salzburg and outstanding international musicians three times (11, 12 and 13 August 2024, with an alternative date of 14 August) on the shores of Lake Grundlsee. The composer himself will conduct the opera, while the director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Andreas Weirich, has been engaged to direct.
ABSTRACT
The selection of the Salzkammergut as the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 with one of the core themes "Salt and Water" was the momentum to turn the popular "Crossover" project of the Aussee Baroque Days into a special highlight. To mark this special occasion, Dr Verena Frey commissioned a contemporary opera about the region's old, mystical legend "Der Wassermann vom Grundlsee", which is about the discovery of salt in Ausseerland, and it was completed by two outstanding international artists who had already composed two contemporary operas and recently performed them successfully throughout Europe.
The elements of salt and water, which together with fishing have been an important basis for all livelihoods in our region for thousands of years and are also the historical origin of its relations with the wider European area, are ideally thematised in the opera. The exciting plot involves a water sprite, half man half fish, who is caught in a fishing net and, as he jumps back into the water, points in the direction of the Sandling mountain, where the salt deposits in the Ausseerland were discovered.
The libretto by Stefano Simone Pintor also contains lively interpersonal conflicts and a dramatisation of the formation of the Ausseerland landscape, covered millions of years ago by a sea that left fossilised ammonites, salt and water in the region. The composition by Vanni Moretto combines contemporary music with baroque and folkloristic elements.
