Ute Gfrerer (Anna)

Opening Event
Music theater and film screening with live music in the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau

„Figura et Anima“
L'horloge magique (The Magic Clock) and La fôret enchantée (The Enchanted Forest)
The Seven Deadly Sins. Ballet chanté.

Production: Frank A. Engel
Set: Frank A. Engel, Kerstin Schmidt
Costumes: Kerstin Schmidt

Musical Director: Golo Berg
Anhaltische Philharmonie


This year's Programme opens with a special Kurt Weill Festival coproduction of The Seven Deadly Sins (text by Bertolt Brecht) together with the Anhaltische Theatre Dessau and the Magdeburg Puppet Theatre. This work, composed by Weill during his time in France, will be performed by puppets with Ute Gfrerer as soloist. Originally from Austria and currently residing in the USA, Ms Gfrerer has performed the work several times over the past months, for example with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under the direction of HK Gruber. Describing her performance, Andreas Pernpeintner of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: „flirtatious, larger than life, full of melancholic dejection, she projects Brecht's words with a crystal-clear articulation“, while the newspaper Münchner tz felt that „with her portrayal of a Anna as a character raised to self-exploitation, soprano Ute Gfrerer offered a perfect blend of classical art and satirical acerbity“.
The Programme includes screenings of the films L'horloge magique and La fôret enchantée, shot in Paris in 1928. The director was Ladislas Starewitch, remembered in movie history as a pioneer of stop-motion animated films which make use of puppets. Music specially written by Paul Dessau at the end of the 1920s for one such movie premiere will now be performed at a film screening in the Anhaltische Theatre.


Co-Production of the Kurt Weill Festival Dessau with the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau