Dalheim summer
The Dalheim Summer is a multi-week theater and music festival that has been held since 1996 in the former Dalheim monastery in the Westphalian district of Paderborn . Around thirteen events take place every two years in August. The program includes theater, concerts and readings. The festival is organized by the Dalheim Monastery Foundation and the Association of Friends of Dalheim Monastery
history
The Dalheim Summer Festival was founded in 1996 as an initiative of the Friends of Dalheim Monastery eV. The aim was to establish the former Augustinian Canons' monastery - owned by the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) since 1979 - as a supraregional cultural center. The top-class program in the historical ambience of the monastery guarantees unique festival moments with the flair of a country party.
Dalheim Monastery has been a place of culture and especially music for more than 500 years. A large wall painting in the choir of the medieval church testifies to this day of the Augustinian canons' love for music . It shows a heavenly choir of singing, harp and organ playing angels. The fittings of the baroque Dalheim monastery church included a spring shop organ made by the Westphalian organ builder Johann Patroclus Möller in the 17th and 18th centuries, today the largest baroque organ in Westphalia. It has been in the parish church of St. Johannes Baptist (Borgentreich) since the monastery was dissolved in 1803 .
program
The seasons traditionally have a motto that has been thematically related to the annual program of the museum operations of the Dalheim Monastery Foundation since 2006 . LWL State Museum for Monastery Culture based. In 2020 the 23rd festival season with the title “Revolution!” Will break new ground both structurally and artistically.
play
In 2020 the director Harald Schwaiger will shift the focus to contemporary drama. Together with the organist Christian Drengk, he brings Walter Jens' play "Judas" to the stage. The AustroPott ensemble presents “The God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza .
In recent years, for example, Molière / Lully's “ The Citizen as a Nobleman ” as a baroque opera (2007), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's “ Faust - The Tragedy First Part ” (2008) or Hugo von Hofmannsthal's “ Jedermann ” (2011), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's “ Nathan the Wise ” (2012) or Friedrich Schiller's “ Don Karlos ” (2015). The directorship traditionally attached great importance to a classic, true-to-original staging that shows the ongoing relevance of the historical works. Since the beginning of the festival, there has been close cooperation with the studio stage of the University of Paderborn , which provides part of the ensemble every year. Since the anniversary season of 2016, the festival has been going unconventional at the theater with extraordinary interpretations of classics. In 2016, the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle presented an interactive opera with works by Georg Friedrich Händel under the title “Liebeswahn” . The Holzhausen Quartet presented William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” (2017) and “Much Ado About Nothing” (2018) as chamber musicals.
Concerts
The Dalheim Summer concert series presents early music as well as jazz. In 2020 the Chamber Orchestra Hannover (conductor: Hans-Christian Euler) and the pianist Hinrich Alpers will perform with piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, the teatro del mondo with the soprano Sunhae Im , the Ensemble Tremoniae around the organist Christian Drengk and the Central Park Band in the monastery Dalheim.
Readings
In the course of time, the proportion of readings in the festival program increased. In 2020, two first-class actors, Wolfram Koch and Anna Schudt, will present texts on the festival motto "Revolution". Nico Holonics ( Berliner Ensemble ) speaks and plays “ Die Blechtrommel ” ( Günter Grass ) with an introduction and under the scenic direction of Oliver Reese (Artistic Director of the Berliner Ensemble).
Directorship
1996-2016: Dr. Wolfgang Kühnhold
2016-2018: Arno Paduch
from 2019: Harald Schwaiger
Venues
Historic and new rooms within the monastery complex are used as venues.
New sheepfold
In the course of secularization (1803) the Dalheim monastery was dissolved and used for agriculture from then on. A testimony to this operation is the New Sheepfold, built in 1829, which Dalheimer Sommer uses today as a venue for plays, readings and concerts. Located directly on the monastery pond in the valley of the complex, the 65-meter-long structure complements the monastic baroque farm yard. Massive stone walls and a double row of twelve wooden columns shape its appearance to this day. In the summer months, the music and theater barn for the festival is equipped with modern event technology. The new sheepfold offers space for around 300 spectators.
Monastery church
The late Gothic Dalheim monastery church dates back to the founding time of the Dalheim monastery and was built from 1460 to 1470: "To please the Lord", as it says in an inscription on the building. It has always been a place of music in the (former) Dalheim monastery. The towerless, elongated hall measures a length of around 52 meters and is divided into a choir and nave by a rood screen. The Augustinian canons, lay brothers and servants in the western nave once found their place in the smaller choir. Concerts today mainly take place in the nave of the church. Due to its special acoustics, the monastery church is used as a place for atmospheric events, especially for the performance of sacred music. The monastery church offers space for around 240 seats.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 55 " N , 8 ° 50 ′ 29" E