The conductor stops the orchestra, instructing them to repeat the section. With each performance, new details emerge from within the music; the taut cross-rhythms, the unexpected accents. Detlev Glanert’s symphonies are admired for their simultaneous focus on the macro and the micro, epic wall-hangings woven with colour-clashing threads. Similarly, his narrative music recalls Grayson Perry’s The Vanity of Small Differences, the 2012 series of four-metre tapestries recasting William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress: first, the scale and scope impress; then, finely considered melodies and adornments demand close attention. The BBC Symphony Orchestra continues its exploration of Glanert’s Prague Symphony. The work has been touring Europe and is about to have its UK premiere, conducted by Semyon Bychkov and featuring mezzo Catriona Morison and baritone Christian Immler.

Of course, like so many projects, at one point it seemed unlikely that the Prague Symphony would ever see its intended Czech premiere. Performance of the Mahler-inspired vocal-orchestral piece was delayed, with the result that Glanert is currently enjoying a bumper crop of premieres: as well as the Kafka-themed song-symphony and a new cello concerto, the German composer’s latest opera The Jewess of Toledo opens at the Semperoper in Dresden on 10 February.

‘I was finishing it throughout the lockdowns and it was a real party to write for full orchestra,’ says Glanert when we meet during a rehearsal break. It takes a particular character to have the strength of mind to continue such an undertaking – it’s pleasing to think of Glanert finishing a five-act opera while many of us (me) were catastrophising over Zoom. ‘I am happier writing for the large apparatus, rather than three recorders,’ smiles Glanert. And, while we have not been short of compelling small-scale chamber music in recent years, we have not had – in the UK, certainly – a glut of full-scale new operas. The Jewess of Toledo is staged by Robert Carsen, who also directed the 2019 Deutsche Oper Berlin production of Glanert’s opera Oceane (2016-18), which was dubbed ‘World Premiere of the Year’ by the 2021 International Opera Awards (the recording – with Donald Runnicles conducting – is available via Oehms Classics). ‘He has an instinctive feeling for music,’ says Glanert of Carsen. ‘In some of his scenes there is nearly nothing on stage – maybe a lamp and a chair. It’s very powerful. I adore the open space as it sharpens the connection between ears and eyes.’

Director Robert Carsen with Detlev Glanert [Nadja Möller/Semperoper Dresden]

Glanert also renews his working relationship with author Hans-Ulrich Treichel, with whom he has collaborated on two other operas (Caligula, 2006; and Oceane). After the usual discussions of plot and contextual materials, Glanert prefers to compose in parallel to the writing. ‘It means that Hans-Ulrich is rewriting up until the last bar,’ says the composer, a little ruefully. ‘I don’t belong to this group of composers who get a libretto and then compose to it alone. I cannot do that. I need the collaboration, absolutely.’ For his part, Treichel often provides musical insights: ‘He’ll suggest a place for an aria. And he’s always right!’

Born in Hamburg in 1960, Glanert was a pupil of Diether de la Motte and Hans Werner Henze. Much of his music features voice, although even his songs tend to be written for large-scale orchestra (such as the luxurious Four Preludes and Serious Songs, 2004/05, based on Brahms’ original work and recorded by baritone Michael Nagy and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on Ondine). In The Jewess of Toledo, as with Glanert’s wider repertoire, the devil is in the detail; she lurks behind broad brush strokes. The role of the Queen is written for alto. ‘She is living in dark times and that is reflected in the voice colour,’ explains Glanert. ‘Oceane has a lot of melodies and light and humour but this has dark blocks and it is a dark world, very passionate, with big feelings.’ That’s putting it mildly.

The Jewess of Toledo – based on the 1851 five-act play by Austrian playwright Franz Grillparzer – follows the affair between Spanish King Alfonso VIII and his mistress Rahel. The Semperoper website describes the work as a ‘drama of private passion and public duty’, a strapline that could be taken directly from The Crown. But the stakes are far higher in 12th-century Toledo, where Christianity is a new religion and war is raging against the Spaniards. ‘In this very delicate setting, the King falls in love with a young Jewish girl,’ explains Glanert. ‘She’s witty, clever, she wants to enjoy life – as the King is in a marriage of convenience she cannot see why they shouldn’t be together. But if she was to fall pregnant, the political implication is enormous.’ The ending is brutal and murderous – and based on a true story.

Musically, Glanert pays tribute to the colliding cultures through instrumentation. Although there was no Arab characterisation in the original story, the composer features an oud in the connecting parts to ensure representation. ‘I’ve included what I imagine to be the bells of Toledo,’ he reveals. The metallic timbre represents the call to prayer, as well as war. ‘There are a lot of gongs and a tam tam.’

‘The Jewess of Toledo has some commonality with Verdi operas,’ concludes Glanert, ‘it shines a light on that fragile relationship between love of a person and love of political power.’ 

The six performances of The Jewess of Toledo (from 10 February) will be conducted by Jonathan Darlington, with baritone Christoph Pohl and soprano Heidi Stober in the lead roles of King Alfonso and Rahel. Find out more: semperoper.de

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of Opera Now. Join our community of opera lovers – subscribe to Opera Now today