The Henze Project

In the end, with over 200 performances in one year, the largest show of works ever dedicated to a living composer was created. From January to December 2010, more than 40 partners presented Henze's musical work and his social and educational commitment. Of his operas, Elegie für junge Liebende (Essen), Boulevard Solitude as an internet opera (Gelsenkirchen), Der junge Lord (Dortmund), El Cimarrón (Oberhausen), Das Wundertheater (Bottrop), Phaedra (Duisburg) and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Herne) were performed, as well as his children's opera Pollicino (Mülheim a. d.Ruhr) and the world premiere of a work jointly commissioned by the Capital of Culture and the Dresden Semperoper for teenagers and students, Gisela! oder: die merk- und denkwürdigen Wege des Glücks, a production of the RuhrTriennale at the mine Zweckel in Gladbeck. There were also new productions of his dance theatre works Der Idiot (Bochum), Undine (Essen), Le disperazioni del signor Pulcinella (Hagen) and choreographies for the 1st Sonata of Royal Winter Music and Voices. The theatrical events were supplemented by a staged evening with the Kammermusik 1958 and Nachtstücke und Arien, assembled under the title orpheus-projekt (Dortmund), so that there were a total of 15 stage productions, each with several performances, of course. 34 orchestral and over 40 chamber concerts, plus a film retrospective, television broadcasts and numerous symposia made the Capital of Culture year a Henze year.

In the documentation of the Henze Project, Steven Sloane draws the following conclusion: It was "the work of many. Not only does it stand for the portrait of a composer, but also for the special experience of communal artistic action. It turned boundaries into bridges. Montepulciano, Mürzzuschlag, Deutschlandsberg and Munich - these are the places Hans Werner Henze has left his mark both as a teacher and as an initiator. The Ruhr region will have to be included in this list." (Steven Sloane in: Kulturhauptstadt Europas RUHR.2010 (ed.): das henze-projekt. neue musik für eine metropole. Dokumentation, p. 39.) (Translated by M. Kerstan)