Opus is the eighth studio album of the music project Schiller created by the German electronic musician Christopher Von Deylen. The album was announced on and was released on. On this album Schiller has collaborated with Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko, French pianist Hélène Grimaud and German classical oboist Albrecht Mayer. Opus is the first release of the new label "Panorama" by Deutsche Grammophon. The album reached in its first week number 1 of the German albums chart and number 6 in Switzerland and number 10 in Austria. These are the highest entries of Schiller in Austria and Switzerland and the fourth number-1-album of Schiller in Germany. Schiller has received a Gold award in Germany in December 2013 for 100.000 sold albums of Opus. In 2014 there will be a reedition of the album: Opus - White Album.
Album
The album Opus combines electronic music with classical music such as Swan Lake. It's also inspired by and based on songs such as Gymnopédie no. 1 by Erik Satie, Edvard Grieg's "Solveig's Song" from Peer Gynt, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini op. 43 and Claude Debussy's Rêverie. After Schiller already released some singles with classical influences such as "Ein schöner Tag" with German singer Isgaard and "Time for Dreams" with Chinese pianist Lang Lang, it's the first completely classical inspired album of Schiller. Originally it was planned as a purely instrumental album, but then it was supplemented with vocals during the developing process. For the creation of the album Christopher von Deylen travelled to the Coachella Valley in California, USA. The performances of Anna Netrebko were recorded in the Dvorák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, Hélène Grimaud's performances were recorded at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York City, Diana Tishchenko's and Albrecht Mayer's performances were recorded at the b-sharp Studios in Berlin. It was released in different editions, including the limited "Ultra Deluxe Edition" of 2.500 exemplares handsigned by Christopher von Deylen. Schiller presented this album for the first time to journalists and traders at four exclusive listening sessions in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne. On and the album Opus was presented to the Schiller fans at two album release events in Berlin. With the album Opus, Schiller introduced, for the first time since the debut albumZeitgeist, a new logotype and a completely new corporate identity. It's also the first album without a name in German language. And it's the first Schiller album without the standard "Willkommen" introduction and the first with a photography instead of a graphic on its cover. The art work includes pictures by photographer Philip Glaser. The cover landscape photo was shot by Toby Harriman. The music video of Swan Lake had its world premiere on on the websites mtv.de and viva.tv. Even though Swan Lake wasn't officially released as a single, the song charted at position 57 on the German singles chart. The music video was produced by Peacock Productions London and was shot in Coachella Valley in the United States. The video was produced and directed by Tara Clark and Caroline Jones.
