Summary

Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells returns with Britten Sinfonia, following the success of their 2015 production of Šimon Voseček’s Biedermann and the Arsonists, with the UK première of Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus in a new translation by David Pountney.

The production is directed by the 2016 Independent Opera Director Fellow, Polly Graham.

Hartmann’s opera, Simplicius Simplicissimus, draws on Grimmelshausen’s 17th-century epic picaresque novel of the same name to create a powerful meditation on the forces of innocence and experience. The opera tracks the journey of one individual, the sheltered, ignorant shepherd boy, Simplicius Simplicissimus, whose life is upturned by the events of the Thirty Years’ War.

“It is exciting to be directing the UK première of Simplicius Simplicissimus. Written in Munich in 1934, and revised and reworked by Hartmann himself, it is Hartmann’s testimony of the experience of living through the extraordinary events of the 1930s and ’40s.”  Polly Graham

For a full cast list visit Independent Opera’s website

Please note this performance contains scenes of nudity.