Vive la folie

What should you do if you have only a short time to enjoy yourselves? The three sailors in Leonard Bernstein’s musical On the Town know the mission they want to devote themselves to in their 24 hours ashore: love, of course. But no sooner have they found it, it’s time to take their leave again. By the time New Year’s Eve comes along, the time is short to take leave from the old year. For this special evening, the Gürzenich Orchestra invites you to embark on an emotional stroll through the history of music, with the focus on the unique soprano Lenneke Ruiten. With her distinctive voice, she will take on several of the most diverse “female figures” in opera literature: faithful Konstanze, Lady of the Camellias Violetta, fallen angel Cunégonde, and Lucia, who is succumbing to insanity, nerves as fragile as the glass of a glass harmonica, the eerie sounds of which accompany her famous aria. A dance through the centuries, along the boundary between dream and reality, as in Maurice Ravel’s La Valse. A concert conducted by Duncan Ward at which ultimately all reason is rich pickings in the mouth of madness.