Opera „Katharina – the German Czarina“

The concert premiere with outstanding artists at a prominent location will be the ideal first big step of the work in the sense of bringing the overall peace-building project OPER KATHARINA into the public eye.

300.000 Euro 

6 month 

Music, Oper 

Germany, Berlin 

Opera „Katharina – the German Czarina“

© Video production Reinhold Kämmerer

Successes Many people already feel attracted by the opera “Katharina — the German Czarina”. This has been impressively demonstrated by smaller concerts at historically significant locations (Dornburg/Elbe and Zerbst/Anhalt castles).

©️Photo Rene Schrader, presentation concert, Dornburg/Elbe castle

Stefan Vinzberg, librettist & composer, presentation concert, Dornburg/Elbe castle ©️ Photo Rene Schrader

Experience

No matter who we talk to, everyone is in favour of the project and its unique character. People want a platform for encounter, for intercultural exchange. 

What could be more beautiful and more suitable for this than an evening at the opera with music that is as emotional as it is gripping, sung by prominent singers in gorgeous costumes against an impressive backdrop, accompanied by first-class musicians and a sonorous choir.

Petersburg Serenade, excerpts from KATHARINA, 2019 Schloss Zerbst/Anhalt castles
Schönebecker Kammerphilharmonie, conducted by Jan Michael Horstmann
© Photo, Stefan Vinzberg

Petersburg Serenade, excerpts from KATHARINA, 2019 Bernburg/Anhalt Schönebecker Kammerphilharmonie, conducted by Jan Michael Horstmann, Soprano Miriam Sabba ©️ Photo, Stefan Vinzberg

Overall project

My partners and I are firmly convinced that a successful premiere on the Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin will be a powerful inspiration for the founding of a Katharina Festival, whose programme will also include the 

German-Russian language and music culture in the heart. The realistic long-term goal, the opera’s tour throughout Russia on the occasion of the 300th birthday of Catherine II, 2029, is already inspiring many people.

Invitation

For the first important step on this path — like the young Sophie, who left her father’s county at the age of 14 — we need your help, your support. Just as Sophie became a tsarina, the opera should mature from a concert to a series of successful complete performances. 

Feel addressed by this ambitious project and be welcome from today on as a part of the project opera “Katharina — the German Czarina”.

Platin Hero

No other platform in the world guarantees your engagement besides the complete repayment and the thank-you presents an additional 10% remuneration — all will be winners.

© Photo Wikipedia, Sophie Friederike Auguste, von Anhalt Zerbst/Dornburg, ca. 15 years old

Use of the Fund

Use From the day the funding amount is paid into the Vinzberg Foundation (non-profit cultural foundation), pre-production will begin:

• • • • Negotiations, talks with organisers, partners, artists
      • Auditions and first rehearsals, solo and choir rehearsals
      • Ensemble rehearsals, orchestra rehearsals
      • Dress rehearsals
      • CD production and making of
      • Komplettproben

The extensive preparations are finally followed by the project objective:

• • • • Stage rehearsals (incl. sound and lighting design)
      • concert premiere of the opera 
      • on Berlin’s most beautiful square, the Gendarmenmarkt within the framework of “Classic Open Air 2022” or earlier

The Babelsberg Film Orchestra under the direction of Koen Schoots will play.

There will be outstanding singers and the Film Choir Berlin.

Opera „Katharina – the German Czarina“

 ©️Wikipedia, 1780’s, Katharina II

Vision

Our greatest gain will be the faces of those people who are happy to have experienced this special evening; the faces of all the touched visitors who exchange excitedly during the breaks and will continue to tell about this experience for many days to come. The desire for understanding, togetherness and peaceful community can be seen on all of them.

That is my vision — that is why I am writing an opera about Catherine the Great, who as a German did so much for Russia and is still rightly revered for it today.

© Wikipedia, Potjemkin and Katharina, a great love, also in the opera

Links 

Links – partners

Links – Stefan Vinzberg

Contribution to the reward

© Photo Stefan Vinzberg

„The construction of a living German-Russian cultural bridge is of the utmost importance.

Where music is played there is no need for words — and yet the result is dialogue.“

(Stefan Vinzberg)