Wiener Taschenoper (Vienna pocket opera) is an Austrian opera company based in Vienna.[1]Insight Guides cite them and theNeue Oper Wien as "two of the independent groups which perform exclusively 20th and 21st-century opera".[2]
ChoreographerSaskia Hölbling staged in 2002Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda byClaudio Monteverdi combined withA-Ronne byLuciano Berio. In 2004 she developed a choreography with four dancers forLabyrinth in collaboration with the composerWolfgang Mitterer and the video artist Alexej Paryla, It was performed at the Semper Depot of Vienna by DANS.KIAS, withKatia Plaschka, soprano.[3][4]
In 2008, the second act of Karlheinz Stockhausen'sDonnerstag aus Licht, titledMichaels Reise um die Erde (Michael's Journey Around the Earth) was staged, in collaboration with theWiener Festwochen, by Carlus Padrissa ofLa Fura dels Baus, with stage direction by Roland Olbeter. It was performed byMarco Blaauw (trumpet),Nicola Jürgensen (basset horn), andmusikFabrik, directed byPeter Rundel.[5] The production was also shown in Cologne, Venice, Warsaw, Dresden and Paris.[6]
In 2009, Hölbling produced three works by Berio:Naturale,Visage andSequenza V.[7]
Since 2006 the Wiener Taschenoper has produced contemporary operas for children.[8] A series of operas based on fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have included Wolfgang Mitterer'sDas Tapfere Schneiderlein,Ali N. Askin'sEisenhans, and in 2010Die Gänsemagd byIris ter Schiphorst.[9]
In 2008John Cage'sA House Full of Music was staged,[10] accompanied by detailed background information and material for teachers.[11]Walther Soyka'sDas kleine Gespenst afterOtfried Preußler's book was performed in 2010 in collaboration with theGraz Opera.[8]