Bregenz Festspiele 2006: High-Definition-Recording of the World Premier of Debussy Opera

The opera “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Claude Debussy was performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with the conductor Lawrence Foster in the wonderful and newly opened festival opera house of the Bregenz Festspiele. The world premier in August 2006 was a huge success.

The French composer (1862-1918) was not able to finish this opera because he was weakened and marked of death in his last years. The British music scientist Prof. Robert Orledge completed this piece of work later with until now unknown original material.
The opera is based on the novel with the same title by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). In this staging it was opened with the ballets «Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune» and «Jeux». The mixture of classical ballet and modern free dance was fantastically interpreted by the ensemble of the London Royal Ballet with world class dancers like Steven McRae as Roderick, Johannes Stepanek as Rodericks friend, Gary Avis as doctor and Leanne Benjamin as Lady Madeline.

The director Phyllida Lloyd, the choreograph Kim Brandstrup and the stage designer Richard Hudson were able to present on stage a logical and self contained concept.

The Bregenz Festspiele has followed a good tradition by staging a whole evening of Debussy. As a contrast to the more popular operas on the sea stage in Bregenz the festival opera house brings a rarely played piece of work in a new production on stage every year.

Syrinx recorded the 90 minutes long one-act-play on three days with six JVC GY-HD110 HDV-cameras. Syrinx was responsible for the complete high definition production and postproduction. The multi-track audio recording and the 5.1 mixing were produced in co-operation with the ORF.