covid-19 Archives - Ian Sidden

Premiere: La muette de Portici

March 13, 2020 By Ian Sidden

Tonight at Theater Dortmund, we’re having our premiere of Auber’s La muette de Portici. However, it will be a closed performance due to restrictions on public gatherings on account of COVID-19. The first open performance will take place in early May.

In addition to singing in the chorus, I’m singing a small role as a fisher who comes to warn his compatriots of impending doom.

Toi toi toi to all of my colleagues, and I wish everyone good health as the world confronts this great challenge.

Premiere: Fernand Cortez

Tonight we premiere our production of Gaspare Spontini’s Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique at Opernhaus Dortmund. This is after a two year delay; originally we were to have premiered this in 2020, but history intervened. There are many versions of this opera floating around, and we are doing a version that has – […]

Premiere: Frédégonde

Here’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering Frédegonde for the first time in Germany. It’s a work inspired from the early history of the Merovingians in what is now France and the ongoing feud between two of the queens, Brunhild and Frédegonde. The work was composed by […]

“Ständchen” by Schubert, Guitar and Voice Arrangement

Here is a performance of my self accompanied guitar arrangement of Franz Schubert’s “Ständchen”.

PREMIERE: Tosca

Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering our “Tosca”, which is the first premiere including the chorus since March 13, 2020.

One Year Later

On March 13, 2020, we had our last large premiere at Theater Dortmund with the chorus onstage. We performed “Die Stumme von Portici” to a nearly empty auditorium, a so-called Geisterpremiere. We nevertheless, of course, gave it our all. There have been other premieres since then as the lockdowns have come and gone, but so […]