<<  -- 8 --  Roderic Dunnett    IN FESTIVE MOOD

Talking of piano reductions, Koering points out that not only is there a published arrangement of Mozart's The Magic Flute for four hands by Zemlinsky; but also the festival recently included a piano arrangement 'of Rossini's The Barber of Seville -- by Schoenberg!'

He's particularly taken with the certain works by Pietro Raimondi (1786-1853), 'a composer of some sixty operas and also an oratorio trilogy, Potifar, dating from 1850: three dramas in one, whose three separate parts (Potifar; Faro [Pharaoh]; and Giacobbe [Jacob]), are performable separately or together. Liszt was one of those who heard all three operas performed first separately and then simultaneously in one day! And he was enthusiastic.' Needless to say, René Koering has serious plans to perform it. The Festival de Radio France et de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon rarely misses a trick.

Koering is personally responsible for the research behind and selection of this intriguing repertoire, and for making it fit into the programmes of the festival, with appropriate casting, which is essential: 'One has to have exactly the right voice for each role, especially as a good many of these operas, happily, are recorded.'

Having been at Darmstadt himself in 1961-2 under Maderna ('He admired Mahler greatly; whereas both Messiaen and Boulez, in those days, detested Mahler!'), Koering has the greatest sympathy for younger composers seeking not just premières, but further performances of major works. Two operas by Pascal Dusapin are among the contemporary works he has staged: 'his first was Romeo and Juliet: we gave the première of it here in 1989; and the most recent was Perelà (an Opéra Bastille commission of 2003) which we've also done.'

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