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© Michal Novak
Malena Ernman
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 December 2025 | ||||||
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Malena Ernman | Terra Mater – Nature in Music | (Concert)
Christina Pluhar | L’Arpeggiata
Margravial Opera House
The concert Terra Mater brings together two extraordinary artists and personalities: the Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman, in an extensive repertoire ranging from Baroque to the twentieth century, has conquered the leading stages of Europe and also represented her native country in 2009 at the Eurovision Song Contest. She is moreover politically active and at the side of her daughter Greta Thunberg fights for climate protection.
The lutenist, conductor and composer Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata have long been established as a fixed star in the constellation of the international Early Music scene and regularly cause a stir with conceptual concert programmes that abound in associations and in which folk and jazz music are anything but taboo.
In their programme Terra Mater – Mother Earth – the intellectual musicians resound in a hymn to creation and brave the musical barrage of the forces of nature. From the surging of ocean waves to the bluster of tempests, from the intoxicating song of the nightingale to the impish call of the cuckoo – the concert unites extravagant instrumental and vocal evocations of nature from the Baroque era along with melodies arranged by Pluhar herself from the repertoire of archetypal and earthy European folklore. An evening reminding us that even the beauty of music is not to be taken for granted as a gift of the nourishing Mother Earth …
Program and cast
Malena Ernman - Mezzo-soprano
Christina Pluhar - Conductor and Theorbe
L’Arpeggiata
PROGRAMME
Franz Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1644–1704)
“The Nightingale”
from the Sonata Representativa for Violone and Basso continuo
John Bennet (1575–1614)
“Venus’ birds whose mournful tunes”
Tarquinio Merula (1595–1665)
“La Gallina” (The Hen)
Canzone for Two Violins and Basso continuo op. 12/1
Thomas Arne (1710–1778)
“The Cuckoo”
from As You Like It
Franz Heinrich Ignaz Biber
“The Frog”
from the Sonata Representativa for Violone and Basso continuo
Traditional
“The Frog and the Mouse”
arranged by Christian Pluhar
John Playford (1623–1686/87)
“Wallom Green”
from The English Dancing Master
Traditional
“The Tailor and the Mouse”
arranged by Christian Pluhar
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
“‘Twas When the Seas Were Roaring”
from English Songs HWV 228
Georg Caspar Schürmann (1672–1751)
Sinfonia pour la tempête
from Die getreue Alceste (Faithful Alceste)
Giulio Taglietti (1660–1718)
Aria da suonare
Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (1676–1760)
“Se al mormorio dell’onda”
Aria from Didone abbandonata
Giovanni Bononcini (1670–1747)
“Brilla in cielo”
Aria from La gara delle quattro stagioni
Giuseppe Maria Orlandini
“Muore il cigno”
Aria from Nerone
Attilio Ariosti (1666–1729)
“Là dove gl’occhi io giro”
Maurizio Cazzati (1616–1678)
Ciaccona
Improvisation, arranged by Christina Pluhar)
Francesco Gasparini (1661–1727)
“Quell’usignolo che innamorato”
Aria from Merope
George Frideric Handel
“Crude furie degli orridi abissi”
Aria from Serse
Margravial Opera House
It was built according to plans designed by the French architect Joseph Saint-Pierre (ca. 1709 – 1754), court builder of the Hohenzollern margrave Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia. It was inaugurated on the occasion of the marriage of their daughter Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie with Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg.
The wooden interior was designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1696 – 1757) and his son Carlo from Bologna in an Italian Late Baroque style. The box theatre is completely preserved in its original condition, except for the curtain which was taken by Napoleon's troops on their march to the 1812 Russian campaign. The prince box was seldom used by the art-minded margravial couple, who preferred a front-row seat.
Princess Wilhelmine, older sister of the Prussian king Frederick the Great, had established the margravial theatre company in 1737. In the new opera house she participated as a composer of opera works and Singspiele, as well as an actor and director. Today she features in a sound-and-light presentation for tourists. After her death in 1758, performances ceased and the building went into disuse, one reason for its good conservation status.
More than one hundred years later, the stage's great depth of 27 metres (89 ft) attracted the composer Richard Wagner, who in 1872 chose Bayreuth as festival centre and had the Festspielhaus built north of the town. The foundation stone ceremony was held on 22 May, Wagner's birthday, and included a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, directed by the maestro.
Parts of the 1994 biopic Farinelli were filmed in the Opera House. The theatre was the site of the annual Bayreuther Osterfestival until 2009. Each September from the year 2000 to 2009, the theatre also hosted the Bayreuth Baroque festival, with performances of early operatic rarities. The 2009 festival included performances of Andrea Bernasconi's festa teatrale, L'Huomo, to a libretto by the Margravine Wilhelmine.
The theatre closed between October 2012 for extensive refurbishment and redevelopment and reopened 12 April 2018.
© Michal Novak
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