Aribert Reimann believed in literary opera in a persistent, pleasantly out-of-date way, writes Gaby Gerster. “Opera without poetry and only vocalizations just doesn’t work,” he once told our newspaper.
The “Lear” was his greatest success, says Gerster, and there was a new production there in 2021 with Christian Gerhaher in the title role. The primacy of the cantabile (even if the singing voice was sometimes allowed and had to spread extremely) radiated into his orchestral treatment.