Amidst all the other political turbulence of 1968, Hamburg experienced a serious musical scandal on 9 December: Hans Werner Henze was to give the first performance of his new oratorio »Das Floß der Medusa« (The Raft of the Medusa) in Hall B of the Planten un Blomen gardens. The work was dedicated to the revolutionary Che Guevara, who had been shot dead the year before, and the plot was based on a true event from the year 1816, when the French frigate »Medusa« ran aground and its officers escaped in the lifeboats, leaving the crew of 150 to fend for itself on an improvised raft: only 15 men survived. A typical class-conscious Henze story. But the performance dissolved in disaster.The RIAS Chamber Choir from West Berlin refused to sing as long as a Che poster and a red flag were hanging from the conductor’s rostrum. Left-wing students chanted »Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh«, and even more extreme lefties demonstrated against the bourgeois event and against Henze himself, whom they called a »salon communist«. The police reacted harshly, and the ensuing fracas caused the concert to be cancelled.Not until 2001 did the oratorio finally get its Hamburg premiere under Ingo Metzmacher. And now the scandalous piece can be heard with a prominent cast at the Elbphilharmonie: Artist in Residence Peter Eötvös as conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester, baritone Peter Schoene and soprano Camilla Nylund.Change of artist: Matthias Goerne has regretfully been forced to cancel his participation in the performance of Hans Werner Henze’s oratorio »The Raft of Medusa« with the SWR Symphonieorchester at the Elbphilharmonie on 17 November due to illness. Peter Schoene steps in to sing the baritone part.Peter Schoene made his operatic debut at the Komische Oper Berlin. Since then the brilliant baritone has established his national and international reputation as concert, opera and lieder singer. As soloist, Schoene has sung almost every role of his discipline in more than 20 opera houses. A keen proponent of 20th and 21st century music, Peter has worked extensively with composers such as Moritz Eggert, Wilhelm Killmayer, Aribert Reimann and Wolfgang Rihm. read less