Pirna celebrates 250 years of Caspar David Friedrich
Anyone who follows in the footsteps of the painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) in the anniversary year 2024 will inevitably also come to the large district town of Pirna. This is where the well-known Malerweg begins and ends - from the picturesque Liebethaler Grund to the historic Pirna market square with the iconic Canalettohaus, the headquarters of the TouristService Pirna. Where in 2024 a themed area will invite you to linger, hikers will also get further cultural suggestions for the anniversary year.
Modern vs. Romantic
Under the title "Topography of Longing - In the Footsteps of Caspar David Friedrich", a special exhibition will be on display at the StadtMuseum Pirna from September 1 to November 3, 2024. The illustrious show wants to devote itself to today's confrontation with the artist's time and will find itself in the unique arc of tension between earlier romanticism and the realism of our epoch. Four accompanying events form the supporting programme of this special exhibition, for which a catalogue will also be published.
Tom Pauls Theater honors CDF
The Tom Pauls Theater, with its theater team, the Ilse Bähnert Foundation and the Caspar David Friedrich Circle of Friends, also has plans to honor the great painter of the Romantic era. On January 27, 2024, the special exhibition "Hike companions - In Saxon Switzerland on the trail of the Romantics" will open in the Peter-Ulrich-Haus. Based on the hiking guide by Veith & Engelhardt "Mahlerische Wanderen", which Caspar David Friedrich used to plan his hikes, romantic pictures from Tom Pauls' private collection will be on display. On January 27th and 28th, 2024, the puppeteer Karl Huck from the Seebühne Hiddensee will be a guest with his Caspar David Friedrich program "Voices from the Sea of Fog". Further events related to the anniversary year are in preparation.
Classical Concert
A concert entitled "The moon has risen" will take place on May 9, 2024 in the Jagdschloss Graupa to celebrate Caspar David Friedrich's 250th birthday. The program includes works by Malcolm Arnold, Matthias Claudius, Howart Bart, Antonin Dvořák, Jacques Offenbach and Robert Schumann. The woodwind quintet of the Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen plays in the following line-up: Bernd Schäfer (flute), Ulrich May (oboe), Roland Vetters (clarinet), Tabea Lüpfert (bassoon) and Eva Steinert (horn).
Caspar David Friedrich meets Richard Wagner
Nothing less than a little piece of heaven awaits guests in the venerable Richard-Wagner-Stätten Graupa in the anniversary year. From 7th to 8th June 2024, the well-known Richard-Wagner-Games Graupa will send the greatest artists of their time into an unprecedented artistic competition on a historical course: the grand master of opera, cult composer Richard Wagner, enters the studio of the painter Caspar David at night Friedrich and demands: "Paint me!" The sparks fly in this fictional competition of the arts, in which there is only one winner in the end - the audience!
Two outstanding artists, a fantastic landscape and a bitter rivalry: these are the ingredients for the multimedia production "A Piece of Heaven. Once I'm eternal.” by Johannes Gärtner, which is entirely in the tradition of Wagner's total work of art. An extraordinary encounter of art and nature at the gateway to Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland, on the trail of the Romantics in the moonlight of summer nights, along the "Poet-Musician-Painter-Weg" with its unique panoramas. This spectacle, which appeals to all the senses, is presented by a well-known ensemble of music, song and drama.
With Richard Wagner and Caspar David Friedrich, the geniuses of two generations and artists meet in a dream world removed from the earthly. Together, the two protagonists venture to the mythical places of their passion, up the river of time to the hidden sources of their inspiration. Following the unforgettable motifs of a merging landscape, her journey takes her to the darkest abysses of the soul and up to hitherto unknown spiritual heights, to see a unique panorama of romance on a hike through the most romantic landscape in Europe.
The idea of the two matadors competing against each other opens up a new perspective on the supposed artist solitaires. So they were much more alike than expected and maybe that's why they argue so pointedly. A philosophical-comedic dialogue with lots of music about the relationship between the arts, to owning and shaping the world, to the hierarchy of nature and art and about travel itself, which was first perceived as an experience in the Romantic era. At the same time, highly topical themes are discussed: the question of how to draw the public's attention in times of ever-increasing impressions, the question of the value and impact of art and human creativity in general - and with it, of course, the universal question of the possibility of a meaningful life.
The music for this production was written by the Dresden composer Johannes Wulff-Woesten based on pictures by Caspar David Friedrich.
