What a contrast: choirs are extremely happy to be able to perform in full again, but the audience is hesitant to come. While the first Corona wave limited almost all music-making in groups, the “freedom” gained with the summer is increasingly attracting people to beer gardens, but little to concert halls. Protagonists in the district make music undaunted; The SZ asked what they still have to think about.
Margret Joswig and her choirs will perform the oratorio “The Creation”, which was planned two years ago, at St. Magdalena in Ottobrunn on Sunday at 7 p.m. Joseph Haydn’s masterpiece thrills them and the singers rejoice. They rehearsed at wide intervals in the church, diligently ventilated the room and therefore “froze terribly” in the winter, says Joswig. The youth choir even rehearsed with a mask. And everyone is still doing a corona test before every rehearsal this year. So far, no one has been proven to be infected with Corona during a sample. However, some singers are temporarily taking a break because they belong to risk groups or regularly visit older people.
Are there enough listeners? The finances are giving the organizers sleepless nights
Also, only one choir sings instead of three Ottobrunn ensembles as originally planned. Despite fewer participants, the finances are giving Joswig sleepless nights. The smaller orchestra costs just as much money as the big one eleven years ago, and whether the church will be full cannot be predicted. “It’s a big undertaking,” she says happily, and also that Giulia Montanari, soprano, and Clemens Joswig, bass-baritone, two internationally sought-after soloists who spent their singing childhood in the choirs of St. Magdalena, are singing along. All in all, Joswig remains optimistic: “Even at the beauty concert on May 15, many listeners were so happy that they came. They don’t speak and the cautious wear masks.” Tickets are available from the Kempter bookshop in Ottobrunn.
Also at 7 p.m., but already on Saturday, Gerold Huber raises the baton for the opera “The Magic Flute” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For the tenth anniversary of the “Oberhaching Opera Festival”, the popular opera will be performed again as an in-house production in the machine hall of the small district of Ödenpullach, directed by his sister Ricarda Geary. The SZ Tassilo Prize winner and choir director Geary is relieved that the project is working. She has noticed that recently the intervals between rehearsals in the choir have reduced almost automatically. A corona self-test is a matter of course for everyone.
However, Geary regrets that some children have dropped out in the meantime because their parents are very worried. Because: “It goes very deep for the children when they can participate and experience such an opera performance,” emphasizes the music teacher. She and all the musicians – the Oberhaching Chamber Orchestra, Oberhachinger choirs and soloists – are highly motivated. More than 120 actors are involved in the production. But Geary also worries about finances and hopes that all 400 seats in the machine hall will be filled for each of the six performances. After all, she is responsible, also towards the community. Tickets are over www.oberhaching.de, https://veranstaltungen.meinestadt.de. or in the town hall and in the library. Further performances are on July 3, 5 p.m.; July 5, 7:30 p.m.; 8th/9th July at 7 p.m. and on July 10, starting at 5 p.m.
Director Ricarda Geary (middle) with the soloists Alisa Milosevic and Michael Dietrich during the dress rehearsal in Ödenpullach.
(Photo: Organizer)
Ton-Art Sauerlach Holzkirchen is confident and in good spirits, although the number of 40 singers has been reduced to a good 25, as the first chairwoman of the choir, Konstanze Glöckl, says. Of course there is a hygiene concept, everyone tests themselves and nobody in the choir has been infected yet. “We’re in good spirits, we’re not going to lose our momentum and we’re sticking with the planning,” emphasizes Glöckl, looking forward to the autumn concert with a colorful, secular programme.