The unique expressive make-up of Rasch’s music – his fluency, assurance on the largest scale, and his uncanny ability to spin a vivid and personal sound-world around the ghosts of others – makes him a natural composer for the stage. His latest opera is Die andere Frau, premiered on 22 January at the Semperoper Dresden.
Setting a libretto by writer Helmut Krausser – exploring the biblical story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar – this compelling work in 10 scenes offers a gripping and thought-provoking exploration of love, hate, betrayal and loss. Michael Wendeberg conducted a cast including Markus Marquardt, Magdalena Anna Hofmann, and the Iranian vocalist Sussan Deyhim. Immo Karaman’s production placed the audience in the middle of the action: on the stage of the Semperoper itself, with the auditorium lit with video projections by László Zsolt Bordos.
Find more information about the opera and an interview with Rasch here.
“A rewarding piece of music theatre [that] aims at an eternal human drama… Peter Theiler promised works with social relevance when he was appointed in Dresden and Rasch has clearly delivered a masterwork to him… the result deserves as large an audience as possible! Rasch’s music is well worth listening to: sonorous orchestral parts, sometimes primeval sounding, get under your skin emotionally… The powerfully eloquent text by Krausser filters out the poetry from the biblical source and has met it with a grippingly harsh contemporary language… An advantage of Rasch’s tonal idiom is the high level of textural comprehensibility, even in the choral scenes… Under the direction of Wendeberg, the Staatskapelle produces excellent sound pictures with brute brilliance, all of which underlines the relevance and validity of the opera.”
neue musikzeitung (Michael Ernst), 24 January 2022
“Gripping… the overall impression is impressive… Rasch and Krausser have not simply retold a legend, but also created a captivating family drama… an opulent score with powerful percussion effects and grounding brass sections.”
MDR Kultur, 25 January 2022
“Rasch brings biblical legends in to the present day… a real event.”
Leipziger Volkszeitung 24 January 2022
“A fantastically varied work… The music comes from two worlds; ten scenes of sharp, piercing, pointed, moving, complexly layered music, sometimes reminiscent of Salome, sometimes reminiscent of much more ancient music. These scenes are interrupted and divided by an Iranian singer’s electronically accompanied lamentation for the destruction of the city of Ur… Hopefully this opera will find large audiences at other houses once times are better again.”
Musik in Dresden (Martin Morgenstern), 24 January 2022
“The opera draws a maximally tense arc from the Old Testament to the present day…”
Concerti (Christian Schmidt), 25 January 2022