Doppelgänger @ Park Avenue Armory

With Jonas Kaufmann
Helmut Deutsch, Pianist
Claus Guth, Director
Michael Levine, Scenic Design
Urs Schönebaum, Lighting Design
Rocafilm, Video Design
Mathis Nitschke, Sound Composition

A New Commission by Park Avenue Armory

In a rare solo performance, Jonas Kaufmann, “the world’s greatest tenor” (The Telegraph, UK), takes on the Wade Thompson Drill Hall in a theatrical staging of Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang (Swan Song), directed by one of opera’s most adventurous directors, Claus Guth, and designed by Michael Levine. Composed in 1828 in Schubert’s final days, Schwanengesang is a heart-melting collection of songs that portray a man in despair, delusion, and at times, in ecstasy. The production folds in additional Schubert repertory as well as sound compositions by Mathis Nitschke. Named for the ultimate song “Der Doppelgänger,” this production stages songs with lyrics from poems by Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine, works that are the pinnacle of a vocalist’s repertory. The myriad emotions that the cycle runs, from the jubilant “Liebesbotschaft” to the somber depth of “Der Doppelgänger,” will display a genre-defying performance by Kaufmann.