A competition

and a meeting
dedicated to
worldwide exchange
in new opera
and music theatre.
 Music
Theatre
Now
A competition and a meeting
dedicated to worldwide exchange
in new opera and music theatre.

Meeting and presentations

of the selected works
Scenkonstbiennalen
Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts
Jönköping, May 22nd – 26th, 2013.

The second edition of the competition Music Theatre NOW

presented by the Music Theatre Committee of the International Theatre Institute
in cooperation with the German Centre of ITI took place in 2012.
 Contents
08 Programme 52 76
Welcome Maschinenhalle Thanks to
28 #1 my Eyes
12
Blauwbaard
The Music Theatre
56 80
Committee
32 The Navigator 还 魂 三 叠
Flyway
Table of Contents

Table of Contents
14
The Meeting 60 84
06
36 Red Shoes Three Mile 07
16
Geros dienos  ! Island
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Jury Meeting
64
in Beijing
40 Samotność pól 88
18 El Gran Teatro bawełnianych Up-close
From the Jury de Oklahoma
68 92
25
44 Schlimmes War Sum Up
We proudly
Homework Ende
present

48 72
Josefine singt T.E.L.
99
Credits

113
Imprint
 Welcome

The Gates to
Music Theatre NOW 2013
Are Wide Open! Welcome to Jönköping!
Welcome

More than 400 new music theatre
productions from every continent,
produced over the past four years, par-
08
ticipated in the second call for entries
Music Theatre Now
music theatre productions will present
their selected works in Jönköping /
Sweden, and theatre-makers and their
audiences will be able to focus on new
It is a great pleasure for us to be hosting
Music Theatre NOW, one of the most
important events for radical and experi-
mental music theatre in its infinite vari-
Welcome
and genres. The programme for the 2013
biennial includes sixteen productions
from all over Sweden selected by a jury,
09
international guest productions, student

Music Theatre Now

to Music Theatre NOW; five superb
jurors examined the submitted works
and selected 17 exceptional productions
– leaving me overcome with tremend-
ous admiration for the music theatre
committee of the International Theatre
Institute, who initiated Music Theatre
NOW. This admiration is mixed with
increasing amazement and leads to an
overwhelming curiosity – a curiosity that
was originally nourished by the presen-
tation of the best projects of the year
2008.
What I experienced in Berlin in
2008 was, and remains, a defining expe-
rience for me. As for many other artists
then, my knowledge was limited to
what was conventional and frequently-
performed on stage. It amazed me how
varied the forms and tones of new music
theatre could be. It also amazed me that,
since the creative approaches were so
fundamentally different, none of these
presentations were in direct competi-
tion with each other. I left the occasion
with a much greater appreciation for this
work, and since then I have experienced
music theatre with fully-attuned senses.
17 outstanding creators an teams of
music theatre’s diversity of forms. And
so Music Theatre NOW opens its doors
and gates to a sensual or factual, aes-
thetic or borderline, fantastic or stream-
lined, colourful or consciously colourless
but always inspiring and forward-looking
world of new music theatre.
I welcome you into the world
of the 2013 edition of Music Theatre NOW.
And I hope that not only your curiosity
will be satisfied by the selection of music
theatre projects, but also that the
presentations, discussions and encoun-
ters encourage you to open wide the
gates to new music theatre, both today
and in the future.
Tobias Biancone
Director General
International Theatre
Institute / ITI
ety at the Swedish Biennial for Perfor- productions, seminars, workshops, dis-
ming Arts in 2013. In fact, for us it has cussions and meetings.
been a long-cherished dream to bring
this provocative and thought-provoking You are most welcome to join this celeb-
multinational showcase to Scandina- ration of the performing arts!
via, after having had the privilege of
following it closely in places like Munich
and Berlin. First and foremost, it is a Stefan Johansson
marvellous opportunity for composers,
dramatists, directors and performers Head of dramaturgy
to meet in one place over a couple of Malmö Opera / Royal Swedish Opera
days and to see presentations of music Member of the
theatre from all over the world, which Music Theatre Committee
would otherwise require more travelling
than most of us can manage. It is also the
place to be for networking amongst pre- Ann Mari Engel
senters, publishers, curators and critics
interested in new music theatre. Secretary General
Music Theatre NOW will be part Teaterunionen / Swedish ITI
of the first Swedish Biennial for Perfor- Director of the Biennial
ming Arts, which will be held in 2013
in the beautiful new Spira building in
Jönköping, home of both the Smålands
Musik & Teater and Jönköpings Sinfoni-
etta. After two decades and ten theatre
and five dance biennials in Sweden, the
decision was made to create a joint
meeting place for theatre, dance, music
theatre, performance and related forms
 Music Theatre –
Now!
Welcome
The oldest committee of the ITI, the
Music Theatre Committee, demon-
strates with this project what a success-
10
ful international collaboration should
Music Theatre Now
look like. Music Theatre NOW is both a
competition and an international get
together: the Swedish Biennial for
Performing Arts has enabled both the
Swedish and German ITI to reflect these
two fundamental aspects by presenting
the winners set out in this book at their
festival in 2013. Over 400 productions
from 35 countries were submitted,
making this the second worldwide com-
petition to date – previously it was co-
ordinated by ITI Germany under the
artistic guidance of Laura Berman. And
because a large-sized festival is the best
framework in which to present the 17
prize-winners of such a competition, we
are especially pleased that the 2013 edi-
tion of Music Theatre NOW has become
a feature of the first multi-disciplinary
Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts.
International Exchange
Since its first edition in 2008 in Berlin,
Music Theatre NOW has not only received
twice as many submissions but has also
become a project based on partnership.
It enjoys the support of both of its two
European organisers. The project’s
inspiration, however, comes from a jury
assembled from around the world, an
international music theatre committee,
and countless theatres, festivals, organi-
sers, ensembles and artists.
We wish this important meeting the best
of luck in its endeavours!
Thomas Engel
Director
ITI Germany
A platform for
Communication between performers
and creators is necessary for growth in
any art form. However, despite globali-
sation, this interaction between artists
remains extremely localized in opera and
music theatre. Since the emergence of
music theatre as we know it today in the
70s and 80s, the work and interest in it
has grown exponentially. However in the
network of performing arts practitio-
ners committed to contemporary and
experimental work, music theatre is
still marginalized. Ten years ago when
Roland Quitt and I started working on
developping a new concept for ITI’s Music
Theatre Workshop, it seemed acutely
necessary to create an event that would
primarily serve as a platform for ex-
change between creators, producers
and presenters of this genre.
Through the ongoing support
of the German ITI centre and a small
group of idealistic colleagues, we were
able to establish Music Theatre NOW in
2008. Back then we were a bit ashamed
that we could only offer the ‘winners’
of our little competition the chance to
participate in a small meeting in Berlin.
However, at that first event we were
overwhelmed by the positive reaction of
the participants, who were so grateful
simply to have the opportunity to meet
fellow artists from far away and to disco-
Welcome
ver each other’s work. This optimistic feedback gave all those working on the project
new energy to push forward.
For this second edition of Music Theatre NOW, with the help of Stefan
11
Johannsson, the Music Theatre Committee member who had stuck with the project
Music Theatre Now
the longest, we were able to cooperate with the Swedish ITI. This enabled us to ex-
pand the project as a whole and to ask a group of esteemed colleagues to participate
as jurors. We were unprepared, however, for the explosion of interest from all parts
of the world. The jury did an incredible job in grappling with the enormous application
pool. I am very grateful not only for their hard work, but for their support for this
event as a whole. Particularly to Danny Yung, who hosted our jury meeting in Beijing
and continues to assist us in many ways. Not only has the interest in participation in
the competition grown, the group of colleagues committed to this event has expan-
ded greatly since we started Music Theatre NOW. This is also the first edition at which
other colleagues will offer additional awards – opportunities for future performances
of some of these works.
Thirty years ago the Music Theatre Committee of the International Theatre
Institute held the first Music Theatre Workshop. At the time this was an informal
meeting for insiders to find out what each other was doing in the field of contem-
porary opera. Today the workshop has become an international meeting. A few days
of presentations has become a three-day marathon of music theatre reflecting the
enormous diversity and creativity in this genre.
This book documents a project, which we hope will continue to grow and
expand in the coming decades. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who
contributed to Music Theatre NOW 2013 and to the creators of the works presented
here, for making this all possible.
Laura Berman
Artistic Director
Music Theatre NOW
 Music Theatre
Committee
About the
Music Theatre Committee
Music Theatre Committee
The Music Theatre Committee (MTC) of
ITI is committed to the artistic develop-
ment of music theatre worldwide. From
12
experimental projects to productions in
Music Theatre Now
opera houses, the committee embraces
all forms of music theatre, including
hybrid theatrical forms, where music is
a crucial and indispensable aspect in the
performance. The committee takes a
special interest in music theatre outside
of the Western European tradition and in
contemporary work which reflects these
other traditions.
The MTC is a democratic body,
which shares the UNESCO goals to ack-
nowledge cultural diversity and further
the exchange of ideas and knowledge
between peoples and nations.
The committee’s main task is
the dissemination of information and
audience education. Its goal is to raise
audience awareness of new opera and
music theatre around the globe.
Through its ever-expanding network, the
MTC seeks to facilitate the production
and presentation of contemporary music
theatre, and to assist in the organization
of cooperation and exchange of produc-
tions among producers.
Committee members are ITI members
whose professional work is directly
related to the creation, production or
presentation of contemporary opera
and music theatre. The group includes
directors, composers, dramaturgs and
producers from all over the world. New
members can be asked to join but local
organizations and individuals who work
in the field of music theatre can also
take the initiative to become a member
of the committee.
International
Music Theatre
Committee
Board History
Music Theatre Committee
Nico Schaafsma, In 1983 the committee initiated a trien-
Netherlands, President nial event, the Music Theatre Workshop,
whose goal was to exchange ideas on
13
Laura Berman, new works and developments in this
Music Theatre Now
Germany genre. The artistic teams – composers /
and or librettists and directors were
Guy Coolen, invited to give lectures presenting the
Belgium productions with the use of video.
Roland Quitt, The list of works presented over
Germany the years includes the following
composers:
Nick Rong jun Yu,
PR China Louis Andriessen, Georges Aperghis,
Giorgio Battistelli, Hans-Jürgen von Bose,
Axel Tangerding, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Eötvös, Jonas
Germany Forssell, Roberto Gerhard, Philip Glass,
Heiner Goebbels, Detlev Glanert, Helmut
Lachenmann, Liza Lim, Luca Lombardi,
Jin Hi Kim, Giacomo Manzoni, Wolfgang
Mitterer, Per Nørgård, Jocy de Oliveira,
Aribert Reimann, Alfred Schnittke,
Michael Tippett, Awet Terterjan, Rodion
Shchedrin, Judith Weir.
In 2008 the workshop was transformed
into a worldwide competition with a
professional jury, reflecting a conscious
attempt to expand the scope of the
project outside Europe and North
America.
 The Meeting Schedule

The presentations
will take place in
Fokus / Stadsbiblioteket.

Thursday, Sunday,
May 23rd May 26th May 22nd May 23rd
welcome reception 09.30 – 12.30
Kulturhuset SPIRA, Jönköping,
presentations 1 – 3
Sweden
Kulturhuset SPIRA

Lunch
14.00 – 17.00
The meeting Music Theatre NOW will take place in Jönköping in the frame of
the Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts 2013. presentations 4 – 6
The Meeting

The Meeting
14 15

The Swedish Biennial Music Theatre NOW

Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

for Performing Arts May 24th
2013 09.30 – 12.30
Within the meeting the artistic teams of
17 productions will present their work presentations 7 – 9
followed by questions and answers. The
After two decades with 10 theatre and 5 dance biennales in Sweden, it was decided detailed schedule will be provided in Lunch
to create a joint meeting place for theatre, dance, music theatre, performance and an updated programme of the Swedish
related forms and genres. The program of the 2013 biennale includes 16 productions Biennial for Perfoming Arts. 14.00 – 17.00
from all over Sweden, selected by a jury, international guest productions, student It is the marvellous opportunity
productions, seminars, workshops, discussions and meetings. for composers, dramatists, directors and presentations 10–12
performers to meet in one place over a
couple of days to see presentations of
music theatre from all over the world.
It is also the place to be for networking
amongst pre-senters, publishers, cura-

May 25th May 26th

tors and critics interested in new music
theatre.

All the participants will have the oppor- 09.30 – 12.30 10.00 – 12.30
tunity to take part in a workshop.
presentations 13 – 15 workshop
Lunch
14.00 – 17.00
scenkonstbiennalen.se/music-theatre-now/ presentations 16 – 18
 16
Music Theatre Now Jury Meeting

Jury Meeting
December 10 – 11, 2012

17

Music Theatre Now Jury Meeting

 Jury
Brett
Bailey
Looking at about 400 DVDs of full-
length music theatre productions – and
processing synopses and librettos – is
not to be taken lightly. The multidimen-
sional art form of performance is flat-
tened by the screen, fragmented and
reinterpreted by the videographer, and
From the Jury
robbed of its essential ‘live-ness’.
Nevertheless it is clear that
music theatre is thriving, evolving and
fusing with other disciplines in pockets
18
all over the world. As an artist working
Music Theatre Now
in the field, I was inspired by many of the
DVDs I watched.
Of course personal taste plays
a significant role in the amount of time
one gives to any work: regardless of high
production values or creative virtuosity,
there were those DVDs that I ejected
after a couple of minutes, and there
were those gems – rough or polished,
lucid or baffling – that gripped me from
beginning to end, and even drew me back
for a second viewing.
My own shortlist of nominees
was mediated by a desire to include
works from the sharp angles on the
edges of the mainstream – those that
stretched the shape of the music theatre
genre – and also to reflect the cultural
diversity of the submissions.
Flyway took a tiny group of
spectators wearing headphones on a
walking tour of Sydney to look at images
of birds – mediated and free – within an
urban context. There was no live music,
no hallowed performance halls, and the
birds could hardly be accused of being
performers … Likewise, although there
are shadowy walk-on parts in the beauti-
fully crafted and mesmerising Blue-
beard, it is much more a work of crea-
tive genius exploding through new media
than it is a performance. Works such as
these two bring oxygen flooding into the
genre and point the way to the future.
My personal favourite works
were In the Solitude of Cotton Fields
and Have a Good Day! The former, with
its gorgeous text, strong performan-
ces, hard music and razor edge, fuses
poignant theatre and 80s pop concert
in a work completely severed from the
pompous over-budgeted music theatre
productions of the grand bourgeoisie.
The latter work is deceptively simple – a
long line of cashiers at supermarket
tills, gently allowing us to peer into their
inner worlds: a socially critical work of
deep pathos.
So where, in the jury’s final se-
lection, are the works that reflect global
music theatre in all its cultural diversity?
Well, there’s some way to go still in ope-
ning this competition up to the world,
but given that networks in some regions
are isolated and undeveloped, time must
be allowed; and this robust and pionee-
ring competition, I believe, is the means
to bring all the threads together.
There were indeed many more
submissions than before from non-Euro-
pean countries, but although I was the
‘African representative’ on the panel,
and there were three submissions from
Africa, I was not prepared to make pat-
ronising token nominations of works that
I felt did not stand up in the competition.
The difficulty in assessing works from
traditions that I was unfamiliar with lay
in having no sense of the place of these
works within those traditions: the very
fact that some of these works were
exotic to me could make them appear in-
triguing and fresh; but then I was unable
to detect the nuances that might distin-
guish a boundary-breaking work from
one that was utterly conventional. As
the reach of the competition expands,
finding ways of giving such works fair
representation is one of the challenges
to be grappled with by the organisers.
Bauer
Biography
Brett Bailey is a South African
playwright, designer, director
and the Artistic Director of
THIRD WORLD BUNFIGHT. He
has worked in several African
countries, in Haiti, the UK and
Europe. His acclaimed iconoclastic
productions, which interrogate
the dynamics of the post-colonial
world, include Big Dada, Verdi’s
macbEth, iMumbo Jumbo and
Orfeus. His performance installa-
tions include EXHIBITs A & B. He
directed the opening show at the
World Summit on Arts and Culture
in Johannesburg (2009), and
the opening shows at the Harare
International Festival of the Arts
from 2006-2011. He was curator
of South Africa’s only public arts
festival, Infecting the City, in
Cape Town from 2008-2011, and
was chair of the jury of the 2011
Prague Quadrennial. His works are
presented across Europe, Australia
and Africa, and have won several
awards, including a gold medal for
design at the Prague Quadrennial
(2007).
Martín
After seeing more than 400 works, it
was not easy for me to have a definite
idea of what could be referred to as the
current panorama of contemporary
music theatrical creativity, but after dis-
cussions with the other members of the
jury, I gained a much clearer picture.
First of all, I must say that I was
pleasantly surprised by the huge number
of applications, which clearly shows that
the world of music theatre and contem-
porary opera is very much alive. It is still
a field of activity or work that is very
attractive and appealing to its creators
(composers, librettists, stage directors,
videographers, etc.), and is obviously
much more than simply a challenging
exploration of what is undoubtedly a
complex area.
It seems that there are certain
ideas which cannot be expressed with
music, dance or prose individually …
creators need something else.
In general, the works featured
a huge variety of creative resources
which were presented with a wide range
of different materials and procedures. It
is also interesting to see how new media
is gradually finding its place in this kalei-
doscope.
On the other hand, what still
seems to be difficult is establishing how
to develop ‘an idea’ in the fullest sense
of the word: an idea which is absolutely
clear, or better still, completely new. Of
course some of the works did manage to
achieve this.
It is also still difficult to envi-
sage the various different layers that
make up a work or a show (music, text,
performance, lighting, video, sound)
without the various narrative hierarchies
that interconnect them.
This is where we see how the
weight of tradition is still playing a key
role, even in pieces which offer a clearly
experimental approach. The influence of
academicism, with its excessive attach-
ment to large cultural institutions and
organisations, is still something of an
impediment to the creative impulse. It
is not easy to arrive at a unified whole
as opposed to presenting several good
ideas in parallel on stage, but fortunately
a number of the works managed to do so.
Finally, following the extensive
discussions in Beijing, I feel that it is
wrong to put the emphasis on cultural
differences, either for juries or creators,
despite the fact that they may come
from the most distinctive places on
earth. There is something that transcends
this and allows us to observe the wide
range of different artistic productions
through the same looking-glass, even if
they come from a cultural world which is
very different from our own.
Biography
Martín Bauer, guitarist, composer
and professor, is currently Direc-
tor of the CEAMC Foundation
(Center of Advanced Studies in
Contemporary Music) and since
1997, of the Ciclo de Conciertos
de Música Contemporánea del
Teatro San Martin, which is consi-
dered one of the most important
festivals for new music in Latin
America. In the past he was Direc-
tor of the Experimental Centre
of the Colón Theatre in Buenos
Aires, a space for new opera,
music theatre and performance.
Over a five-year period more than
forty works, several of them by
young Argentine composers, were
presented with great success.
Martín Bauer has com-
posed chamber music, as well as
music for ballet, theatre and film.
His music has been presented in
major concert halls in his country
and abroad. The government of
Argentina has given him several
awards including the Premio a la
Excelencia en la Cultura, and also
from the National Arts Fund.
More recently he has gravitated
toward music theatre. These
works have been presented at: The
Kitchen (New York), Dartington
Summer Festival (UK), Podewil
(Berlin), Singapore Arts Festival,
Zurich Opera House, Edinburgh
Festival, Pfefferberg (Berlin), Villa
Romana (Firenze) Oficina Musical
(Oporto). As a stage director
he was responsible for the first
performance in Buenos Aires of
Salvatore Sciarrino’s Infinito Nero
and Vanitas as well as works by
Satie, Joyce and Cage. His work
The Loser, based on the novel by
Thomas Bernhard, was voted the
From the Jury
most important piece of the year
by the Music Critics Association
in 2004.
Martín Bauer regularly
19
gives lectures and seminars in his
Music Theatre Now
country and abroad on topics such
as Samuel Beckett and music, sce-
nic music, Argentine experimental
music, and John Cage in Latin
America. He is currently Director
of the Centro de Experimentación
y Creación del Teatro Argentino
de La Plata, a centre specialising in
new opera and music theatre.
 Beth
Morrison
The most impressive element that this
competition represents is just how vast
the interest is in the creation of new mu-
sic theatre and opera theatre works in
the 21st century. Recognizing that over
400 works were submitted with the sti-
pulation that they could only have pre-
miered in the last four years signifies
that a staggering amount of work is be-
ing created, and that music theatre and
opera works are vibrant and also have
the opportunity to be the most impor-
tant art form of the century. The other
very interesting thing was how vastly
different these works are from continent
to continent and country to country,
both musically and theatrically. Though
From the Jury
Roland
Quitt
I was the only member of the 2012 jury
who was also a juror for the first edition
of Music Theatre NOW. Compared to
2008, it was striking not only how much
less opera there was amongst this year’s
submissions, but also how sharply the
Biography number of contributions in which singing
played a dominant role had declined.
Beth Morrison Projects is the Interestingly, this fundamental shift was
realisation of Beth Morrison’s  accompanied by another: a decisive
(Artistic and Executive Director) increase in productions whose work
deep commitment to supporting relied on film and video technology.
and empowering composers and Everywhere, the filmed image became
artists as they create new work. a fundamentally existential metaphor
The Wall Street Journal recently for living in a media-driven world. At the
said about her extensive history same time, an up-and-coming generation
in the development of new opera of music theatre creators are taking
under such conditions I still look for
a music theatre that fuses a radically
new theatre with radically new and, in
itself, discerning and complex music. As
in 2008, works submitted that placed
such high demands on music in theatre
came largely from the German-language
world, where complexity in music is still
a traditionally-sanctified value. But at
the same time, the pool of composers
who work in the German-language arena
remain more or less international.
An aesthetic gulf divides con-
tributions from the German-language
territories and those from neighbouring
Belgium and the Netherlands. For a
long time, both of these regions were
new paths. Submissions from England
were divided between the traditional
and a fringe obligation towards humour.
Sad to see that so little came from Italy.
All the jurors found the off-theatre
productions from Eastern Europe and
Russia very intense. An aesthetic awak-
ening is palpable there.
I remain amazed at how many
different ways music theatre manages
to express itself. Amongst the winners,
Flyway, Josefine singt and T.E.L. are
examples of extreme positions.
Perhaps the most decisive
difference between 2008 and 2012
is that – for the first time – MTN has
an international jury. Not everything

From the Jury

we are a ‘global’ world, our performing
arts vary significantly.
I am very happy to have had the
opportunity to review so many works
20
from all over the world. As a producer
Music Theatre Now
and theatre, “Ms. Morrison may be
immortalized one day as a 21st-
century Diaghilev, known for her
ability to assemble memorable
collaborations among artists ...
what they need from the new mixed
media art form, as opposed to reflecting
on the mature traditions of music thea-
tre, whereby music becomes just one of
many ingredients to be freely mixed with
considered to be subsidy-paradises in
comparison with the rest of the world,
and together they accounted for
almost half of the submissions. Flemish
submissions were more conceptual,
could be agreed upon, and some of
the submissions I would have liked to
see amongst those invited only drew
disconcerted stares from my colleagues. Biography
21
There remains a residual incommensura-

Music Theatre Now

and presenter of new music theatre and
opera theatre works, this experience
was invaluable in seeing quickly what is
happening NOW in our art form across
the globe.
[she is] a vital link in the music-in-
dustry food chain.” She previously
served as administrative director
at Boston University’s Tanglewood
Institute, a programme that con-
nects young musicians with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra’s
world renowned Tanglewood Fes-
tival. In addition to Beth Morrison  music and overall theatrical concept
Projects, Ms. Morrison served as
producer for New York City Opera’s
VOX: Contemporary American
Opera Lab for the 2010-2011 sea-
sons, as well as a three-year foun-
ding tenure with the Yale Institute
for Music Theatre. Ms. Morrison is
also currently the founding co-
artistic director of Prototype, a
contemporary opera-theatre /
music-theatre festival produced
with HERE Arts Center in New
York City.  Ms. Morrison holds a
bachelor of music from Boston
University School of Music, a
master of music from Arizona
State University School of Music,
and a master of fine arts in theatre
management/producing from Yale
School of Drama.
others.
Yet, the opera submissions
were of a higher quality than in 2008.
Have composers who continue to follow
this path become more aware of the
genre’s problems, have they begun to
deal more cautiously with its pitfalls?
I was very surprised, not only by the
of The Navigator, but also by its staging
– the way it came up with elements of
performance – and almost completely
freed itself from any ‘as if’ in opera.
Any place in the world where
music theatre has started picking up
traces of western avant-garde, music, as
a result, can only be on an equal footing
with other aspects of theatre and can
only aesthetically succeed as a genuine
multi-media attempt to interpret reality.
Composers, therefore, have either to
learn to work in a team and stop clai-
ming, in a totalitarian fashion, that they
alone are creating musical art within
theatre, or they have to become theatre
people themselves, capable of ‘compo-
sing’ what is to be received by the ear in
direct relation to what is to be received
by the eye. However, for myself, even
more ironic, more reduced, and at the
same a great deal more sensual than the
German-language ones. They remain
linked to an ideal being much proscribed
in Germany, namely, that art should
provide intelligent entertainment. In
the Flemish region, narrative discourse
and character, two elements that have
virtually been banished from progres-
sive theatre in Germany, find a new
justification, as once did the tonality of
Milhaud’s and Stravinsky’s ironic art.
Viewed in comparison, German music
theatre appears almost expressionist
in its approach, it is less methodical,
often goes for the highest risk, and, as a
consequence, frequently fails; it spends
every moment deconstructing the
previous one, it launches into dialectic
flights whose most important goal is to
have audiences leave the theatre, if not
deeply shaken, then at the very least in a
bad mood; anything, apart from feeling
‘entertained’.
I cannot generalise where I
reviewed a smaller number of submis-
sions. The Canadian works that I watched
were often tradition-oriented. All Scan-
dinavian contributions were looking for
bility between different theatre cultures
that even dialogue will never clear. On
the other hand, through such dialogue
we were able to achieve a consensus in
many cases. This shows the possibility,
the opportunity and the significance of
such talks, and it perfectly shows what
Music Theatre NOW is all about.
Roland Quitt is a freelance dra-
maturg, author and curator from
Germany working predominantly
in the field of new music theatre.
He studied Music, Philosophy
and German at Berlin’s Freie
Universität. After several years in
fringe theatre as a director, actor
and head of an opera ensemble,
he began working as a drama-
turg for various theatres. Since
1996 the main focus of his work
has been the field of advanced
contemporary music theatre. In
the German city of Bielefeld he
founded the ‘visible music’ series,
which pioneered as an arena for
experimentation in forms of music
theatre outside opera, and which
was later continued in Mannheim.
He has been responsible for the
conception and commissioning
of several world premieres and
has collaborated with many of
Europe’s leading composers for
new music theatre. For several
years Roland Quitt has been an
active member of the ITI Music
Theatre Committee’s board.
 Danny
Yung
The 400 plus entries this year comprise
many different kinds of music theatre
and provide a glimpse of what‘s going
on in different continents at the mo-
ment. The entries go from traditional to
experimental, low budget productions
to large-scale ones, café performance
to gallery installation, and of course,
the use of conventional venues too.
Amongst the works are operas, musi-
cals and music performances (concert),
whilst the definition of music theatre is
becoming more hybrid and/or multi-
faceted.  As a genre, music theatre is
evolving and defining itself. On the
other hand, only a handful of the creati-
ve works seem to be aiming for or expe-
From the Jury
rimenting with challenging and crossing
these boundaries. In other words, most
of the pieces reviewed are conforming
rather than self-challenging and can be
22
placed securely within established
Music Theatre Now
frameworks or institutions. From a
strategic point of view, Music Theatre
NOW is an engine to push the concept
and practice of music theatre to new
frontiers. On top of activities that exist
already, such as competitions, the pre-
sentation of awards, and invitations to
performances, more opportunities for
artistic exchange would be invaluable to
the development of music theatre. Art-
ist exchanges through topical research
presentations, for instance, could be one
way of laying a solid foundation for crea-
tive dialogues. These kinds of meetings
would be beneficial to practitioners
of music theatre by keeping them infor-
med of the latest developments in the
genre. The establishment of a database
of the entered works would be an effec-
tive tool for information dissemination
and help the system to be more organi-
sed and open to all.  has also contributed significantly
Biography
Danny Yung is an experimental
art pioneer, the founder and co-
artistic director of Zuni Icosahedron
and chairperson of the Hong
Kong Institute of Contemporary
Culture. Over the past 30 years,
he has been deeply involved in
various aspects of the arts, namely
theatre, cartoon, film and video,
visual arts and installations, and
is widely regarded as one of the
most influential artists in Hong
Kong and its neighbouring regions.
He is a keen advocate of experi-
mental arts and new art forms,
and has been involved in over 100
theatrical productions as director,
scriptwriter, producer and stage
designer, and these works have
been staged in over 30 cities. He
to the provision of a platform for
both acclaimed and emerging
artists to explore and practise
theatre art in Hong Kong, as well
as across Europe, Asia and the
United States, thereby winning
great acclaim.
The Jury
In 2009, Yung received the Merit
Cross of the Order of Merit
from the Federal Republic of
Germany in 2009 in recognition
of his contribution to the arts and
cultural exchange between
Germany and Hong Kong. In 2008,
he was honoured with the Music
Theatre NOW award for his Tears
of Barren Hill.
Danny is not only ac-
tive in the arts and cultural devel-
opment in Hong Kong and the
Asia Pacific regions, he is also dedi-
cated to promoting international
cultural exchange and arts educa-
tion. He is currently an internatio-
nal consultant of the UN Consul-
The Jury
tant System (UNCS) of UNESCO,
chairperson of the Asia Pacific
Alliance of World Cultural Forums,
23
chairperson of the Hong Kong– Clockwise from left:
Music Theatre Now
Taipei–Shenzhen–Shanghai City- Beth Morrison, Martín Bauer, Danny Yung,
to-City Cultural Exchange Confe- Brett Bailey, Roland Quitt
rence, vice president of the Asia
Pacific Performing Arts Network,
and is on the board of the West
Kowloon Cultural District Autho-
rity and the Lee Shau Kee Hong
Kong School of Creativity.
 We proudly present
The enormous diversity and innovative
power of music theatre can be seen
in the productions of this edition of
Music Theatre NOW. By organising this
global competition and the meeting in
Jönköping, the Music Theatre Commit-
tee of ITI wants to facilitate an exchange
of ideas between creators, performers,
24
producers and the public.
Music Theatre Now
Founded in 1969, the Commit-
tee has a long-standing history, amongst
its members it had the privilege to
count the directors Walter Felsenstein
and Harold Prince, who were leading
figures in their respective fields: opera
and musical. Now music theatre has
developed into much more than opera
or musical. It has become a rich genre
in which elements of theatre, music,
dance, film, performance and installation
are combined to make new art forms.
Boundaries between the disciplines in
the performing arts are crossed and
sometimes even disappear. Increasin-
gly, concerts incorporate scenography
or some form of staging, and similarly,
music is playing a more important part in
‘regular’ theatre productions. Communi-
ty projects are also emerging where the
distinction between professionals and
amateurs is less obvious. The diversity
in music styles in music theatre is wider
than ever before, from classical and
contemporary compositions to pop, jazz
and world-music. In the presentation
of music theatre we see a significant
shift from the traditional venues such as
theatres and opera houses, to festivals
and more site-specific performances.
Many writers, composers, directors and
We proudly present
performers, who are pioneers in their
profession and who seek to experiment
in the performing arts, feel at home in
this genre.
It has been questioned lately
whether music theatre is ‘the’ art form
25
of the 21st century. The committee’s
Music Theatre Now
answer is a resounding ‘yes’. We see a
huge potential for music theatre today,
also outside the European tradition.
The Music Theatre Committee
would like to thank the jury for doing
the enormous task of making a selection
from the more than 400 productions.
We thank ITI Germany for its long-term
commitment to the project and their
financial support, and we thank the Swe-
dish Biennial for Performing Arts and ITI
Sweden for their generous hospitality.
We hope you will enjoy the
event and that the meeting and network-
ing during Music Theatre NOW will inspire
you, and that it will lead to future colla-
borations and to new developments in
music theatre.
Nico Schaafsma
President of the Board of the
Music Theatre Committee
 26
Music Theatre Now

Works
The Selected

27

Music Theatre Now The Selected Works


Blauwbaard
Bluebeard
The classic tale of La Barbe bleue (Blue-
beard) tells the story of a violent noble-
man in the habit of murdering his wives,
and the attempts of one wife to avoid
Blauwbaard
the fate of her predecessors. At the be-
ginning of the 20th century, the period
in which Sigmund Freud developed and
28
deployed his theories, it was said that
Music Theatre Now
the castle dwelling, which plays such an
important role in the Bartók opera,
mirrors the workings of the duke’s (and
therefore man’s) psyche, and that the
drive of the female protagonist to enter
its rooms (whatever the outcome) re-
presents women’s desire to understand
(hopefully to her advantage) that psyche.
In our Bluebeard, the fate of
this female is depicted not by an actress,
but by a virtual representation of an ac-
tress. Bluebeard’s male protagonist also
becomes a virtual entity. The spectator
witnesses the emotional quest of the
wretched female creature. She leads us
through Bluebeard’s dwellings in such
a manner that we feel as if we are part
of the plot: experiencing her fear and
disgust and undergoing her inescapable
destiny; an experience that is introduced
by an enigmatic prologue and enhanced
by a series of musical improvisations,
soundscapes and lyrics. Through this
approach, virtual, multilayered, mysteri-
ous and constantly-changing spaces are
visualised and projected onto the floor
as well as onto the geometrical environ-
ment of a large (sometimes pivoting)
cube.
33⅓ Collective
Jules van Hulst,
Douwe Dijkstra
and
Coen Huisman
Is Bluebeard an opera – and if it is not
opera, then what is it? In fact, we too
find it difficult to determine what exactly
our Bluebeard is. All we know (and have
learned from our audiences and the
various press reviews) is that we have
developed a kind of narrative which does
not yet have a name.
By nature we (the 33 ⅓ Collec-
Blauwbaard
tive) jump out of all boxes, even our own.
We do not fit within the template of
‘music theatre praxis’, i.e. the develop-
29
ment phases: composer writes music,
Music Theatre Now
librettist constructs text, dramaturg
applies drama, musicians rehearse, direc-
tor directs etc. We aim to do things
differently, experiment, find new ways
of developing a combined musical and
visual language.
The New York Times Magazine
even judged: “Video has infiltrated main-
stream opera houses, too, but in Bluebe-
ard, three young artists with a white box
have unstopped a stream of 3-D illusions
that the Metropolitan Opera should
really be coveting.
… it’s left a message blinking
on Big Opera’s screen: CAN YOU DO
THIS?”
Van Hulst, Dijkstra
and Huisman
 About /
Music

We are Jules van Hulst, Douwe Dijkstra and Coen Huisman, three individual artists wor-
king together to produce a 100% result. As 33 ⅓ Collective we create images, atmos-
pheres and theatrical scenes primarily using projections to tell a story to which impro-
vised and/or composed music is added. Our approach is to visualise virtual, multilayered
and mysterious spaces that change constantly. Through the use of projectors we create
disorientating differences in visual perspectives and distances.
During our time as students at ArtEZ we collaborated on a range of projects,
including The Falls, an experimental opera based on one of Peter Greenaway’s earliest
works. Greenaway himself was closely involved in this production, for which we created
the visual input. site.33one3rd.com/#BlueBeard

Bluebeard –
Or how to perform
Blauwbaard

Blauwbaard
an opera without
30
the usual suspects 31
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Michael de Roo invited us to create a
contemporary version of Duke Bluebeards
Castle, Bartok’s famous opera, based on
La Barbe bleue, a French literary folktale,
the most famous extant version was
written by Charles Perrault and first pub-
lished by Barbin in Paris, in January 1697.
Many a writer and composer has been
inspired by this gruesome tale of the ugly
Duke killing his many wives, not least Béla
Bartók and Béla Balázs, his librettist.
It was our dearest wish to use
both the soundscapes created by Michael
de Roo and excerpts of the wonderful
1966 Decca recording of Bartóks
Bluebeard’s Castle, where Judith’s part
is sung by Christa Ludwig and the Duke’s
by her husband Walter Berry. We engaged
an agent to inform the Bartók estate of
our intentions and obtain the copyright,
which, unfortunately, was not gran-
ted. As the premiere was only a couple
of weeks away we found ourselves in
quite a predicament. How to premiere a
(video) opera without the usual suspects
or the music? That was the question we
had to solve. And we did solve it. It took
us three days with the wonderful input
of Rosa Ensemble to create a score,
prologue and lyrics - and another two
days to synchronise the new material
with the existing imagery. Our Bluebeard
was ready to go!
The inspiration for the cube
came from our basic approach towards
this project: instead of creating a clas-
sical setup, we wanted to upset the
understanding of classical opera, in
our case the understanding of Bartóks
Bluebeard’s Castle with the seven rooms
that Judith has to enter, which had been
our original inspiration. After trying out
many options we decided to lock the
opera (the singing protagonists) into a
cube and use the cube and the space
around it to express (through our pro-
jected images) Judith’s emotional quest.
 Flyway
Elizabeth
Dunn

Flyway is a site-specific, interdisciplinary work that investigates the enchanting nature

of migratory birds. Wearing headphones and binoculars, a small audience is enveloped
in a lush soundscape and guided on an intimate bird watching tour through urban
spaces to encounter special moments dotted along the path – birds framed by screens,
optical lenses and the city itself. Using music, video and performance, Flyway merges
foreground and background and points to our mediated experience of ‘nature’.
Video artworks and the live environment are made viewable through bino-
culars, which become channels to cinematically frame the field of view and momenta-
rily collapse the outside world. The Flyway guide, Elizabeth Dunn, is a silent presence
who gently leads the flock via a series of video installations, which utilise existing city
screens in businesses and public locations. Hypnotic imagery is infused with a conti-
Flyway

Flyway
nuous 80-minute soundscape of atmospheric music and bird calls crafted by sound
artist Lawrence English. This ethereal sonic cocoon, combined with the physical act of
32 33
walking and the environmental shifts as dusk settles, creates a meditative, moving and
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

strangely intimate journey. Familiar city spaces are slowly raised to a level of wonder
and subtly repositioned to invite an altered and deepened perspective on what and how
life coexists within.
Exploring our ecological connections, Flyway draws on the mesh of humans,
birds and intangible forces engaged in the phenomenal act of moving onwards. It is
created from research into the plight of migratory shorebirds, meetings with bird
watchers and conservationists, and site visits to collect the audiovisual field recordings
that form the richly layered sound and video artworks. Drawing further on ecological
philosophy and personal mythologies, a poetic flyway field guide accompanies the work
and serves as a reference point for its conceptual explorations.
Flyway is a response to the existence of migratory birds and the mystifying,
ancient, epic journeys fewer and fewer of them make each year. Flying thousands of
kilometres non-stop, their places to rest and feed are being consumed by the pressures
of ever-growing industry and population. Moving from place to place, between two
ends of the earth, the birds are invisible to many. But, there are the committed few
who illuminate their plight, protect their sites and hospitably welcome them as they
make their way.
In its simplicity and directness Flyway generates a space to consider different,
perhaps conflicting, ways of mapping a landscape. In its longing to consider the city
from a different perspective, it begins to dismantle the conventions and proscriptions
that make up our urban experience.
 Biographies /
Background The Music

Flyway is an interdisciplinary project exploring the phenomena of migration, ecology The Flyway sound exists somewhere between
and coexistence. As a site-specific outdoor work it engages with local people, birds, the real and the dreamt. It is a composition
architecture and businesses to create an experience responsive to the time and place of suggestion and invitation, rather than
in which it occurs. direction and didacticism.
Flyway is conceived, directed and performed by Elizabeth Dunn. Created in Inspired by colossal migrations,
collaboration with sound artist Lawrence English, artistic consultant Lara Thoms and Flyway’s sonic character suggests thick clus-
co-producers Aphids and Next Wave, it was developed in partnership with leading ters of bird flocks, dense and rich clouds of
Australian ornithological organisation, Birdlife Australia. sound, shifting up and down along the coasts
of nations. Distant melodic phrases suggest a
longing, a desire for both journey and desti-
Elizabeth Dunn nation, but remain free-floating and ultimate-
ly adrift. There is no final place of rest, just
is a Melbourne-based interdisciplinary artist working across video, installation, perfor- repeated cycles as the birds move back and
mance and participation to consider social ecology, ‘nature’ and place. Her practice is forth in an elegant seasonal symphony.
informed by a background in spatial design, education, and regional arts and her solo Using field recordings sourced
and collaborative works have been presented across Australia. She is an artistic asso- along Australia’s Queensland coast and
ciate with Aphids. composed sound elements, Flyway’s sound-
Flyway

Flyway
track acts as an acoustic blanket creating an
auditory envelope around participants in the
34 35
Lawrence English piece. The disconnection of the self from
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

the outside sonic world creates an opening
is a composer, media artist and curator based in Brisbane, Australia. Working across an through which participants can venture into
eclectic array of aesthetic investigations, his work prompts questions of field, percep- an internal space. It’s an internal space that’s
tion and memory. Utilising a variety of approaches, including live performance and partly imagined, partly real – rooted in the
installation, he creates works that ponder subtle transformations of space, and asks field recordings – but wholly personal as it’s
audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception. the participants’ histories, experiences and
understandings that inject meaning into the
sonic materials and add colour to the journey.
Lara Thoms
is interested in socially engaged, site-specific and participatory possibilities in contem-
porary art. She is based in Australia between Sydney and Melbourne. Her inter-disci-
plinary projects have been presented nationally and internationally. She is an artistic
associate with Aphids.

Aphids
is an artist-led interdisciplinary arts organisation creating collaborations across art-
forms and borders. Aphids’ projects sit at the nexus of contemporary music, perfor-
mance, technology and site-specific practice.

www.aphids.net
 Operomanija Geros
Dienos  !
Have a Good Day!

The plot of this opera is set around the inner lives of cashiers in a shopping centre and
looks at everything that lies behind the mechanical “Good afternoon. Thank you. Have
Geros Dienos  !

Geros Dienos  !
a good day!”, followed by a smile. The faceless, robot-like shop workers to be found in
everyday life are transformed into striking opera characters; their secret thoughts and
biographies are revealed to the audience and turned into short, personal dramas. The
characters of the various saleswomen represent the social landscape of Lithuania and
36 37
reflect the topics of the day, such as emigration, unemployment and a patriarchate-
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

dominant mentality, or serve as stylistic figures created for musical and textual variation.
Inner monologues reflect each cashier’s personal characteristics, education,
the way they speak and their personal problems. The libretto of the opera combines
documentary and poetic layers. The text itself is a revealing mosaic of spoken langua-
ge, poetry and social issues. To avoid any moral or condemnatory suggestion, a critical
attitude towards capitalism is expressed through humour, paradox, irony and poetry.
The mosaic of different destinies is transformed into one ode suggesting the pleasure
of consumption. The audience is doing more than just snooping on the inner worlds
of the cashiers, they are also acknowledging that they too are part of the unavoidable
circle of earning and spending.
The atmosphere of a supermarket is established before the audience even
find their way into the hall: on the door, their tickets are checked by security guards – a
very familiar presence in shopping malls – one of whom will play the piano later on. A
glinting and buzzing installation of daylight lamps connects the audience space with the
ten cashiers on stage. The physical qualities of the performers are precisely tuned to
the musical and textual score, each face tells a separate story. The lighting design has
two layers: the first aims at creating a realistic, aesthetically cold atmosphere, whilst
the second has a theatrical effect, highlighting each cashier when she sings. Goods –
the obligatory decoration of a shopping centre – exist only in acoustic and verbal form:
monotonous melodies and an abundance of groceries attack the viewers’ ears and ima-
gination. The only actual props are transparent lists of bar-codes that are scanned by
the scanners, beeping and blinking their red lights throughout the entire performance.
All the cashiers in the opera are imprisoned in their workplace, only occasionally are
they able to leave it for a short period.
 Biographies /
Background
Operomanija
Independent creative group OPEROMANIJA
is a collective of artists of the younger
generation from various spheres: poets
and composers, theatre directors and
soloists, instrumentalists and conduc-
tors, video artists and stage designers,
whose goal is to create contemporary
opera. Over a period of five years since
2008, OPEROMANIJA has organized five
contemporary opera festivals NOA
(New Opera Action) and created and
staged over 30 contemporary Lithua-
nian operas. OPEROMANIJA is an active
Geros Dienos  !
promoter of music theatre and contem-
porary art in Lithuania.
The opera Have a Good Day!
is the result of a close collaboration
38
between composer, librettist and direc-
Music Theatre Now
tor. All aspects of the opera – the text,
music and visual aspect – were created  Documentary at Goldsmith’s (London).
simultaneously. None of these aesthetic
positions is considered more important
than the other.
Lina Lapelytė,
composer
Lina Lapelytė (1984) lives and works
in London and Vilnius. She is an artist,
composer and performer currently
exploring the phenomena of song. Using
song as an object, Lina examines the
issues of displacement, otherness and
beauty. Re-enactment supports her
investigation into aesthetics, control and
reality. Lapelytė has been exhibiting and
performing at the DRAF, Royal Festival
Hall, ICA, BBC Proms, Tate Modern
(London), CAC (Vilnius), CCA (Glasgow),
Ikon (Birmingham), Skopje Biennale and
the Holland Festival.
Vaiva Grainytė,
librettist
Vaiva Grainytė (1984) is a Lithuanian
writer, poet and essayist. Using her texts
as media, she collaborates with various
artists and participates in audio-poetry
projects. Her debut book Beijing Diaries
was nominated for the Year of the Book
2012 and is acclaimed as a stylistic
phenomenon. Grainytė’s oeuvre com-
prises poetry, wit, surrealism and a
critical attitude towards social issues.
She is currently working on a new book
of short stories and is also an editor of
an arts news website.
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė,
director
Geros Dienos  !
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (1983) is a film and 
theatre artist from Lithuania. She
received her bachelor of arts in Theatre
39
Directing and Cinematography at LMTA
Music Theatre Now
(Vilnius) and her master of arts in Screen
Rugilė experiments with the boundaries
between documentary and fiction, per-
forming and being, filming and seeing.
In her theatre works she uses elements
of environmental art and cinema, such
The Music
as unconventional solutions to the
scenic space, participatory position of
the audience, realistic acting, and true
narratives.
Have a Good Day! is an ode to capitalism that illustrates the inevitability of consump-
tion. In the opera, the anonymous cashier one meets every day takes on the nuances
of an individual character. Performers reject a classical vocalizing and instead the
cashiers’ arias sound more like repetitive, trite melodies, reminiscent of the endless,
monotonous movement of goods along a conveyor. The minimalistic score is com-
posed of various sounds from an environment and reflects acoustic diversity of a
shopping centre.
“The key sound throughout the opera is the monotonous beeping that happens every
time an item is scanned. It might get louder or quieter, but it is always there. The songs
that accompany the beeping are as monotonous as the process of shopping and selling.
Instead of becoming the main focus of the opera, the music underlines the thoughts of
the cashiers – it enables us to hear their voice.”
Lina Lapelytė, composer
www.haveagoodday.me
 Teatro Argentino de la Plata
and Marcos Franciosi
El Gran Teatro
de Oklahoma
El Gran Teatro de Oklahoma
The Great Theatre of Oklahoma
“Based on the final chapter of Franz Kafka’s
novel Amerika, the opera is set over five
40
scenes during which a group of people,
Music Theatre Now
including the central character Karl
Rossmann, try to overcome numerous
impediments to join The Great Theatre of
Oklahoma, a strange organisation willing
to recruit people who wish to ‘belong’ to
it. Kafka never finished the chapter, so we
offer our own interpretation of the story
based on the logic of Kafkaesque night-
mares: the characters are torn between
reality and dreams in an atmosphere of
constant uncertainty.
Although in our version of the
story those who are taken on achieve
their aim, the opera recreates the cyclical
nature of nightmares in which something
starts and ends with the same sense of
ambiguity. In this respect the opera uses
the essential narrative character of the
novel, albeit offering a more psychological
account of the course of events. By em-
phasising certain passages of the text, we
expose the emotional profile of the cha-
racters using a mixed time frame, which
combines the concept of the instant with
the intrinsically dynamic, inevitable and
cyclical nature of dreams.
Using an analysis of the text,
we sought to establish a common language
between the literary ideas, audio concept
El Gran Teatro de Oklahoma
and staging, with the aim of ​​strengthening
the link between what the audience sees
41
and what it hears. This connection is not
Music Theatre Now
necessarily depicted in an iconographic
or figurative sense, but through the con-
struction of symbolic parallelisms in which
one of the elements – literary, visual or
audio – helps us to create the atmosphere
for certain specific parts or for the piece
as a whole. Thus, we based this connection
on a combination of text and sound to see
the repercussions it would have on the per-
formance. However, during the course of
the compositional process we reversed the
order of the elements to suit the specific
needs of the performance.
Both the characteristics of the
venue and those of the instrumental and
vocal ensembles had a decisive influence
on the compositional strategies adopted
in terms of sound and space. They also
affected the interpretation of the text,
as roles and characters were redefined
in accordance with the specific possibili-
ties of the vocal ensemble. Thus, some of
the spaces featured in Kafka’s work were
adapted to the specific atmosphere of the
venue where the piece was staged.”
Marcos Franciosi,
composer
 About
In Argentina there are two important
centres for experimentation: the CETC
and the TACEC (in the Teatro Colón and
Teatro Argentino de La Plata respec-
tively). Both were conceived as spaces
that could be used to produce, promote
and increase awareness of experimental
contemporary art. Even though econo-
mic subsidies for productions are never
sufficient, the two spaces offer artists
the kind of infrastructure which is to be
found in proper theatres, such as a sta-
ge, sound, lighting, set design, etc. Most
composers, myself included, are more
than willing to participate because these
El Gran Teatro de Oklahoma
essentials are provided. Even so, not
all Argentinean composers opt to base
their work on experimentation.
In the case of the The Great
Theatre of Oklahoma, I decided to adopt
this approach because in terms of art
theory, I have always been interested
in a perspective rooted to some extent
42
in Duchamp’s principles. The choice of
Music Theatre Now
objects used in the piece interacts with
writing techniques that are part of what
we understand as musical tradition.
Notwithstanding its experimental na-
ture, and the fact that the piece is also
The Music
inspired by certain characteristics of the
space itself, it is a traditionally-written
The first adaptation from the original was based on the dialogue and resulted in a dra-
matic, mainly theatrical structure. The translation of this text to music meant a reinter-
pretation of the original libretto which, in turn, became a new adaptation from the
original dialogues, emphasising the internal monologues of the characters and inducing
in them permanent changes in their physical, psychical and musical positions.
In terms of the musical composition, our work was based on four main elements:
— Vocal treatment of the literary text.
— Use of every day objects as instruments to produce sounds.
— Extensive and conventional use of normal musical instruments.
— Process of sound in real and delayed time.
The various formal and textural configurations are based on the association of sounds
with the specific sources which generate them. As such, objects such as car or bicycle
horns, glass goblets, corrugated hoses, and megaphones represent a specific sensory
material reality: the sound of air, glass, metal, water, and wood. Through the cognitive
identification of these elements, listening becomes a symbolic exercise in which the
sound itself describes a ‘specific state’ which is directly or indirectly associated with the
drama, thereby enhancing the various semantic elements of the text.
composition completely based on a mu-
sical score, and could therefore also be
staged in other venues.
As for the TACEC, it is an addi-
tional space at the Teatro Argentino de
La Plata constructed from an area in
the basement of the Sala Mayor Alberto
Ginastera, where the goods lifts for the
main venue are still situated. The TACEC
is now a proper venue, but in 2010 using
it to stage a production implied the con-
cept of ‘intervention’ in an unconventi-
onal space. Its appearance, including its
lighting and its smell, were more typical
of an engine room than a conventional
El Gran Teatro de Oklahoma
theatre, and these aspects were used to
maximum advantage in the staging of
the piece.
The Nonsense Ensemble Vocal
de Solistas, which was established in
2009, is unique in Latin America and
is dedicated to a modern vocal reper-
toire for solo artists. It comprises eight
43
vocalists including its director, Valeria
Music Theatre Now
Martinelli, who directed The Great
Theatre of Oklahoma. This was the first
opera the ensemble ever performed.
Seven of its members wrote the piece,
basing it on the group’s specific charac-
teristics.
www.teatroargentino.gba.gov.ar
 François Sarhan
Homework
Homework

Homework
“(…) the basic premise of Homework is the assumption that we all perform superficial, ob- In this work the activities in themselves are
vious activities in our lives – drinking coffee, hammering nails, etc. – as well as activities unimportant. I merely chose simple things
44 45
linked with our subconscious, and therefore not quite so obvious. Some theories suggest which we all know, which we have all done
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

that these subconscious activities have much to do with sexual urges. Whether this is true or at some point, and which could then be
not is not really the point here. In Homework, I wanted to try to find a way of showing how transformed into a kind of ritual. Which in
the transitions between these two kinds of activities flow. turn shows that people do these things to
I show people doing things that at first seem simple and obvious then become obtain gratification.”
very unusual, so that the viewers can see how what plays on the surface does not corres-
pond with the real desires of the characters. In Homework there are three characters, François Sarhan
completely independent of each other: the first constructs a toy, the second prepares for from an interview with
a rendezvous, and the third cooks. Three fundamental human pastimes – building, loving, Babette Karner
eating.
The first of the three characters reads the instruction manual for a mechani-
cal toy, but what he actually does is somehow unrelated to this activity. It is precisely this
discrepancy which shows us what he really wants. As viewers, we see that we are in the
realms of the mechanical and the building of something, yet everything we see somehow
fails to fit together. It is in these gaps that we can read a great deal about the moments
in question: about the subconscious, the ritualistic and the musical. Because music means
more than plucking a string: music is everything that lies between gestures.
My idea was to utilise elements of music and video to show that something else is
also present, so that the viewers experience much more about the people on stage than they
are aware of. Of course this is also amusing, since this form of discrepancy makes people
laugh. Homework operates on many different levels of this kind, all basically addressing
the same thing though in different ways: viewers find themselves either laughing or suddenly
recognising something they find alarming.
 About
Homework was initially a concert piece
Homework
commissioned by the Wittener Tage für
neue Kammermusik festival. In 2011, it
was reworked for the stage and com-
46
missioned by Kunst aus der Zeit for the
Music Theatre Now
Bregenzer Festspiele. The original idea
comes from studying the relationship
between musical activity and maniacal
activity and asking what kind of gestures
and sounds this produces.
“(…) as a child I was used to doing all sorts
of things. I wrote, I painted and I made
music. Later I studied literature.
There were two turning points in my life:
I met two artists who showed me how it is
possible to work simply and comfortably
when you stop worrying about technique.
The first was the Czech artist Jan Svank-
majer, who at one time belonged to the
old school of Surrealists in the former
Czechoslovakia. He spoke bluntly about
being totally indifferent to technique and
just making what he liked. The other, with
whom I’ve since collaborated, is the South
African artist and director William
Kentridge. We created a piece together
and I spent a lot of time with him in his
house in South Africa. It was like an
enlightenment for me: in a single morning,
in his studio, he moved back and forth
with great ease between making charco-
al drawings and computer animations,
writing and photography. This method was
completely normal and natural for him. He
just did it, and it meant nothing to him if
someone said “But you aren’t a profes-
sional writer!” That’s what makes him able
to create so many things. I thought to
myself, “If something like this is possible,
why do I think so much about what I make?
From now on I’m going to allow myself the
freedom to experiment with things I’m not
an expert in!” It’s a much more interesting
and relaxed way to work. I always felt a lot
of inner pressure when I composed: that
my works never fitted into the established
order of things, that they weren’t good
enough, things like that.
[…]
On the other hand, though, to make a film
is a lot more exciting because it speaks
directly to a childlike way of working:
you can play with different elements. And
when you play, you come closer to yourself
and you discover many things that would
otherwise remain hidden in your subcon-
scious.” crisis point and change in their behaviour.”
François Sarhan
from an interview with
Babette Karner
The Music
“The music alludes to the ritualistic aspects
Homework
of the piece and gives it its dramatic direc-
tion. It also shows the destruction of the
individual through a paroxysm of physical
47
activity.
Music Theatre Now
I must say, however, that the nar-
rative is quite elusive and doesn‘t establish
a distinct plot. My difficult task was to be
both precise and elusive …
The idea of body percussion
creating short, percussive sounds is linked
to the idea of building a mechanical / elec-
tronic device, both through the types of
sounds and the DIY concept (the person in
his garage building something produces all
the sounds himself). This contrast between
the mechanical and the absence of any
instrument is the central point of the piece,
questioning the existence and the nature
of the thing, the tool, the object. Each of
the three characters brings a different
perspective: the guitar player integrates the
instrument into his actions whilst the man
going on a date is more of an actor. The
music is the hidden link between the three
characters. It is what provokes the major
François Sarhan
www.fsarhan.com
 Josefine sings.
(Not) a Recital after
Franz Kafka
Josefine singt.
(K)ein Liederabend
nach Franz Kafka
Josefine singt.
48
Music Theatre Now
Josephine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der
Mäuse (Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse
Folk) is the last short story written by
Franz Kafka. It primarily details a
community and its relationship with a
renowned singer named Josephine. The
story was included in the collection Ein
Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist) pub-
lished soon after Kafka’s death.
The novel tells the story of
Josephine the Singer, a rarity amongst
the mouse people for having an innate
ability to sing, which no one else in the
community possesses. She can not only
sing, but can sing beautifully, helping
all the mouse people to tolerate their
unusually hard lives. Some of the mouse
people claim to dislike her and do not
believe she is truly singing, while others
adore her and consider her a communal
treasure: Nevertheless, all the mouse
people gather round to listen to her, and
once she is singing, forget their reserva-
tions.
Throughout the story, the nar-
rator, who at first purports that whoever
has not heard Josephine sing does not
know the true power of music, begins to
doubt his own judgement. He suggests
opera silens
Josefine singt.
49
Music Theatre Now
that what is held so dear by the mouse
people is not Josephine’s ‘ability‘ but the
silence that falls over the people and
their settlement when she is singing.
While he never ostensibly decries or cri-
ticises the beloved singer, he gradually
whittles away at her character, finally
describing her as someone of little
talent who dislikes and often shirks her
work, and who sometimes brings danger
to her people (for her singing can act
as a beacon to the many enemies of the
mouse people). Still she is considered a
gift and adored by the community; yet,
when she ‘disappears‘, allegedly because
she did not feel her music was apprecia-
ted, little sleep is lost over the matter
- the lives of the mouse people continue
as normal.
It is uncertain if the mouse
people actually are mice. Although
one of their number – who is also the
narrator – describes them falling ‘quiet
as mice’ when Josephine begins to sing.
Aside from the title, this is the only time
that mice are referenced.
 www.2eleven.de/projekte

About The Music

opera silens In his final piece of prose, Josefine, die

Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse, Franz
opera silens was founded in Hamburg in 1997 by director Hans-Jörg Kapp, composer Kafka does not tell us the wording of
Jochen Neurath, singer Ulrike Bartusch, dancer Wobine Bosch, dramaturg Thorsten the arias sung by the mouse Josephi-
Beyer, stage designer Christian Wiehle and costume designer Irène Favre de Lucascaz. ne in front of an enchanted audience,
As opposed to making use of traditional methods of storytelling by staging a conflict who are caught up in the extraordinary
and offering modes of identification to the spectator, opera silens basically separates beauty of her voice. When I was asked to
Josefine singt.

Josefine singt.
text, music, image and acting and recombines these elements. The first two opera provide some music for the opera silens
silens productions Satie/Amnesie in 1997 and the asynchronous opera Amnesie Interna- production Josefine singt, I imagined
tional (1999) – both of which premiered at Hamburg’s opera stabile – recombined text these to have been the sibylline words
and music by composer Erik Satie. Satie/Amnesie was also shown at ArtGenda Festival in of the fragmented song Viel hab ich
50 51
Stockholm in 1998. dein, which Friedrich Hölderlin notated
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

In 2001, opera silens created two baroque opera productions at Kampnagel in the Homburger Folioheft, the sketch
Hamburg. The first production, acqua acqua acqua acqua was based on the idea of book that accompanied him through a
building a baroque Wunderkammer on the basis of Monteverdi’s Madrigal book VIII Libri catastrophic watershed in his life. In my
amorosi e guerrieri. Then, In Earth combined a new approach to baroque gestures with music, Josephine’s voice is represented
music by Purcell and Bach. In both productions opera silens recombined the musical by the sounds of a cello playing natural
pieces and rearranged them with contemporary instruments and electronics. harmonics in the highest register. Thus
In 2005, opera silens cooperated with composer Johannes Harneit by staging we do not hear the words of the song,
Robert Walser’s novel Der Raeuber at opera stabile. In 2006, opera silens commissioned even though they are precisely encoded
Russian composer Vadim Karassikov to contribute music to the installation-based music in the virtuoso performance of Agnies-
theatre production see my songs at Altonaer Museum. This piece explored the visual zka Dziubak’s left fingertips and in the
and acoustic borders of perception. The piece was shown at the festival Rainy Days in emphatic movements of the cellist’s right
Luxembourg in 2008. arm controlling the bow and her hand ar-
In 2008, opera silens premiered gehen gehen gehen. Kein Theater nach Thomas ticulating the melody. I asked the produc-
Bernhard in co-operation with the Hamburg Theatre Academy and composer Fredrik tion team to use my score freely, cutting
Schwenk. At this time music producer Thomas Schmoelz joined opera silens. Focusing it up into 42 phrases that are distributed
on contemporary music, he complements the work of Hans-Jörg Kapp by developping throughout the entire play.
musical concepts.
For the last but one production Neurovisions – eine gesamteuropäische Wolfgang von Schweinitz
Touretterie (Kampnagel Hamburg, 2010) opera silens collaborated with neurologist
Prof. Alexander Münchau and three Tourette’s patients. Neurovisions combined songs
from the Eurovision Song Contest with music by composer Charlotte Seither.
opera silens is currently developping a new music theatre piece in co-operation
with Kampnagel Hamburg,
 Maschinenhalle
Winfried
Ritsch,
Christine
#1
Gaigg,
Philipp
Harnoncourt
and
Bernhard
Lang
Maschinenhalle #1
A confined space in which machines
shape their own world, and where we
can observe and analyse but cannot in-
52
fluence them. We can hear, see, and feel
Music Theatre Now
their systems but never figure them out.
We are at their mercy. With Maschinen-
halle #1, choreographer Christine Gaigg,
composer Bernhard Lang, computer-
musician and artist Winfried Ritsch, and
light and set designer Philipp Harno-
court, created a choreographed musical
piece far removed from the conventions
of music theatre, in which individual
elements are joined by invisible threads:
performance venue (hall), machines,
and people become the meta-machine
whose rules specify the sequences.
Twelve dancers in a feedback
situation of movement and self-genera-
ting sounds perform on twelve serially-
ordered stations, each consisting of a
resonating platform and an automated
piano. The music is created indirectly
like this: the dance steps on the reso-
nating platform are translated by the
computer, transferred to the keys of the
automated piano, and then played back
again and reinterpreted with human
possibilities. The movements sculp-
ted by sound material change in their
repetition: newer rhythms are produced
and demand the dancers’ creativity and
precision. The twelve units communicate
Machine
Shop #1
Maschinenhalle #1
with each other, sometimes in solos or
chorally, sometimes synchronised or
contrapuntally – but always unpredicta-
53
bly with respect to their sequencing and
Music Theatre Now
spatial distribution.
The automated machine-piano
has a singular, technical virtuosity im-
possible for a human player. The dan-
cers, however – equally virtuoso but
yet individual – convert its machine-
generated rhythms into complex, wildly-
drawn or gently-suggested movement-
adventures. They provide an expressive
contrast to the totally identical appara-
tus. An alongside-and-with-each-other
of man and machine, smoothly-running
and progressive.
Of course the incorporated
subtext is also political. It tells of the
power of the collective, the power of
machines. It tells of the dialectics of
passion and terror, of coordinated
rhythms produced by large masses, of
the machine-like quality of repetition,
and the obsessive nature we observe
as much in addicts and the psychically
ill as we do in many of today’s working
practices.
 About
For some years now, Christine Gaigg,
Bernhard Lang, Philipp Harnoncourt and
Winfried Ritsch have been working –
sometimes in different combinations –
on a loop grammar, which structurally
connects music and dance (or move-
ment) in space. Several of these works
from the so-called TRIKE series, develo-
ped since 2004, depict electronic music
and movements on top of one another;
others work perfectly without tech-
The Music
nology, with the performers creating a
moving landscape consisting of visual
Maschinenhalle #1
and acoustic rhythms produced without
sound feeds. Metal-resonating platforms
were first used early in the TRIKE series,
in which the electronically-amplified
steps of the dancers on the raised plat-
54
forms become sound material. Other
Music Theatre Now
pieces from the series explicitly deal
with a technology based on the process
of cutting and repeating short sequen-
ces, a computer-generated video repe-
tition – the visual loop generator. At the
same time, attention was focused on the
dialogue between the visual projections
of dance movements and a real, moving
body. The latest production of this
series – like Maschinenhalle #1 (2010) –
places the sound projection on a musical
instrument in the foreground, with the
instrument or the idea of the instrument
extended by the trias resonating plat-
form, piano, and loop generator.
Bernhard Lang,
composer
Bernhard Lang began exploring electro-
www.2ndnature.at nic music and computer technology at
the Institute for Electronic Music (IEM)
at the University of Music and Perfor-
ming Arts in Graz / Austria. Since 2003,
he has been focussing on dance and
developing projects with Xavier Le Roy
(The Theatre of Repetitions, 2003), Willi
Dorner and Christine Gaigg in particular.
For the 2nd Nature label, Gaigg produ-
ces contemporary dance projects, often
in collaboration with lighting and set
designer Philipp Harnoncourt. Winfried
Ritsch is associate professor at the Insti-
tute for Electronic Music (IEM) and also
heads the Atelier Algorythmics studio.
Maschinenhalle #1
“The starting point for the composi-
tion was the instrument Winfried Ritsch
55
developed as part of a long-time artistic
Music Theatre Now
collaboration with me and choreographer
Christine Gaigg. It consists of 12 resona-
ting platforms, 12 automated pianos, 12
computers, and 12 performers. Their
movements generate sounds and rhythms,
which – through the feedback processes
of sampling and looping – in turn serve as
the impulse for new dance-related move-
ments. This is therefore a self-generating
composition which more or less invites the
composer, as its creator, to retreat into
the background. The piece is a borderline
experience between the perpetual tipping
of ultra-precise directions and sensual
blurring, which it also consciously plays
with. The interesting thing about all this –
precisely from the perspective of compo-
sition – is that there is no telling whether
the movement produces the sound or
the sound the movement. Essentially this
makes the composition not only a work of
musical theatre but also a piece of aesthe-
tic, philo-sophical and artistic research.”
Bernhard Lang
 The
ELISION
ensemble
Navigator
“The Navigator is an opera about extreme passion, about Eros and Thanatos, Desire some of the disorientations of ecstasy –
and Death, the hazard of lovers, and of war and choices made between annihilation and the special kind of mad aliveness when
creation. all the senses are sharpened and one can
The subject of The Navigator is an erotic paradox – or perhaps more precisely, access states of transformation. The opera
the structure of the paradox that is theatricalised in Eros – the name the Ancient Greeks is not about narrative form or psychological
gave to the divinity of desire. The Greeks described Eros as the ‘weaver of fictions’, ‘the development – instead it describes a series of
bittersweet’, pointing to the ambivalence, the dilemma of sensation and the illusory states of being.
conditions that underpin the erotic. The journey then is not so much a linear journey from Aspects of two great epics, The
one place to another, but more a to-and-fro, a place of deferral. What is desire but a Mahabharata and Wagner’s Tristan und
The Navigator

The Navigator
longing for that which is out of reach – a trajectory of longing that moves endlessly to an Isolde, are symbolically pivotal to the ope-
impossible vanishing point? A triangular geometry is created in which the lover yearns to ra. It is not the stories themselves that are
be one with the beloved, yet also strives to maintain the distance that is the condition of important, rather certain energy patterns
the erotic (think of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Stendhal’s On of risk and transformation. The idea of the
56 57
Love, Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, Sappho’s poetry). gamble comes from the dice game scene in
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

The opera’s journey plots the co-ordinates of desire – a staging of shifting posi- the great Indian epic The Mahabharata.
tions: of distance and nearness in musical space; convergence and divergence of different Briefly, King Yudishtira is drawn into a dice
temporal forms. The figures in my opera, the characters of the Navigator, the Beloved, game where he stakes all that he owns, in-
the Fool, the Crone and the Angel of History, move in shifting constellations to describe cluding his kingdom, his brothers, himself
and his wife. Because of his unstoppable
addiction, he gambles and loses every-
thing, including that which is most loved.
The opera begins at this catastrophic
moment of total loss. So the gamble is
about an extremity of desire which might
lead towards ecstasy (lovers) or perhaps
towards disaster or annihilation (war).”

Liza Lim
from an interview with
Jérémie Szpirglas
 The Music
About
The Navigator
”In late 2004, I sat alone in the darkened
concert hall of the Sydney Opera House
listening to the Sydney Symphony under
58
Gianluigi Gelmetti play the rapturous
Music Theatre Now
music of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde.
From that moment, I wanted to write an
opera about ecstatic engulfment and the
ambiguous space of desire. I avidly followed
performances of Wagner’s opera – in
Brisbane, in Paris and in Essen. From there
The Navigator began to evolve.“
„One of the themes that I was really drawn
to in the Tristan und Isolde story – which
is perhaps not the first theme one usually
thinks of – is the theme of the chaos of fal-
se signs: in an early Breton version of the
story, Tristan is waiting: does Isolde’s ship
fly the white flag of good news or the black
flag of disaster? Tristan hears the report of
a black flag and dies just as Isolde arrives.
Are we actually that reliable witnesses to
our own desires or do our projections cast
a veil on whatever we experience? Ouch!
[…]
I wasn’t thinking of Aboriginal myths but
the librettist Patricia Sykes, interestingly,
read very widely on myths surrounding the
Greek Pleiades, the constellation which
also figures very prominently in Australian
www.elision.org.au Aboriginal stories about the Seven Sisters,
The prelude to this ‘alchemical dream
opera’ is played by a Ganassi recorder,
an instrument long associated with
lamentation, the erotic, and pastoral and
supernatural realms. A counterpoint
is provided by the sound of cicadas, a
high pitch of desire, and the rustle of
the quivering feathers of an entrapped
Angel of History.
But I think you can see that I am working
more with certain abstract patterns that
are expressed in these great classic stories
without necessarily ‘setting’ the story.
Myths are incredible storehouses of deep
cultural knowledge so I find them endlessly
fascinating, relevant and alive.“
Liza Lim
from an interview with
Jérémie Szpirglas
Liza Lim
Liza Lim‘s work as a composer is focused
on intercultural exchange, looking par-
ticularly at Chinese and Australian Indi-
genous art, aesthetics and ritual culture.
Her projects encompass opera, chamber
& symphonic music and site-specific
installation. Recent commissions include
Ensemble musikFabrik & Holland Festival,
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble
InterContemporain, Salzburg & Lucerne
Festivals, Bavarian Radio & SWR Or-
chestras, Sydney Symphony and Festival
d’Automne à Paris. She has been closely
associated with the ELISION Ensemble
with whom she collaborated on three
operas. She is Professor of Composition
at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
”Cicadas were an image of desire for the
Greeks – they had a story that once upon
a time, the cicadas were human. When
the Muses arose, they were so enamoured
of music that all they wanted to do was
sing and forgot all else, perishing in this
suffused state of desire.
The recorder is another image
of this trope of desire. The Ganassi flouris-
hed in 15th century Venice in a school of
recorder playing that was highly virtuosic
and full of extravagant ornamentations.
As an instrument, it was associated with
the supernatural, the melancholic, the
pastoral and the erotic. That particular
tradition died out when Baroque recorders
came to supremacy but strangely, it was
an Australian instrument builder, Fred
Morgan, who spearheaded the revival of
The Navigator
the instrument about forty years ago. So
its use for me is also tied up with strange
pathways in recapturing and remaking the
past - it is both authentic and recreated –
59
a product of research and imagination. I
Music Theatre Now
love the expressivity of the Ganassi recor-
der – the immediacy that the sound has,
with its closeness to breath – it registers
every subtle shift and nuance in the body.
These various kinds of instru-
ments emerging from different historical
periods, for me, create different musical
spaces – sometimes very congruent, some-
times clashing. Each instrument comes out
of particular sound worlds – each with its
own performance histories, different phy-
sicalities and aesthetics of listening and
expression, and somehow the mix provides
me with access to a highly textured mix of
gestural languages and ‘affects’ (to draw
upon a very Baroque understanding of
music). Instead of a smooth and histori-
cally coherent ensemble, you end up with
a lot of ‘boundary situations’ – the electric
guitar against the recorder is one extreme
example. I like to work with these polari-
ties, finding ways of weaving connections
across boundaries or intensifying the diffe-
rences and the friction between elements
which then forms part of the expressivity
of my musical language.“
Liza Lim
from an interview with
Jérémie Szpirglas
 Degenerate Art
Ensemble

Red
Shoes
Red Shoes

Red Shoes
60 61
Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Red Shoes
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

is a re-imagining of Hans Christian
Andersen’s tale of a girl who is cursed to
dance herself to death for following her
creative desires. DAE’s interpretation of
this beloved fairy tale / horror story is a
rich drama of dreams, passion, discipli-
ne, desire, trauma, transformation and
reinvention. DAE‘s work shows parallels
between this story and the struggle to
follow one’s creative path in contem-
porary society. In the 2011 premiere, the
performance began in Seattle’s Frye Art
Museum galleries and spilled out onto
the streets. The group created a thea-
tre inside an abandoned supermarket,
performed in a cathedral courtyard, in a
fountain and around a bonfire in the
back streets of Seattle’s first hill neigh-
bourhood. Red Shoes brings together
non-verbal theatre, dance, song, live
music and visual art sensibilities to
create a performance environment that
is both immersive and abstract, poetic
yet narrative.

About
Degenerate Art
Ensemble
Joshua Kohl and Haruko Nishimura are
co-founders and co-artistic directors
of the Seattle-based multi-art group
Degenerate Art Ensemble (DAE). DAE’s
work has been presented by major dance
and music venues, has been shown in
galleries, and was featured as the subject
of a large scale exhibition at Seattle’s
Frye Art Museum in 2011. Nishimura’s
passion as a director and performer is
Red Shoes
to question the relationship between
audience and performer – to put them in
each other’s way, to cause collision and
62
conflict – with the goal of awakening and
Music Theatre Now
transformation. Kohl’s approach to mu-
sic is similarly combustive: it is dedicated
to the exploration and proliferation of
genre-free music that utilises all the
available tools of music-making, from
classical instruments to electronics and
new inventions. In addition to his work
with DAE, Kohl is also an avid conductor
of indie classical music.  cedented neighbourhood partnership
The Music
www.degenerateartensemble.com
Degenerate Art Ensemble has a highly collaborative approach to music making. Up-
wards of 8 composers have joined minds for the creation of past DAE performance
scores. Swapping themes, stealing ideas from each other and remixing each others‘
sounds are common practices in the group‘s work. The score for Red Shoes was co-
created by composers Joshua Kohl and Jherek Bischoff in collaboration with the cast
of Haruko Nishimura and Dohee Lee. The lines of composer and performer are
blurred as the performers are asked at times to create their own melodies, which are
then in turn reinterpreted in new scores. While much of the music is notated, musi-
cians are also asked to improvise within the compositions, aiming to create a more
razor-edge connection between music and theatrical performance. In line with the
community-collaborative nature of Red Shoes, the group has been working with local
musicians for the performances, adding a greater dimension of community involve-
ment. This not only builds closer relationships with the cities in which they perform,
Red Shoes emerged from DAE’s deep but also brings new influences and energies to the work itself.
Red Shoes
relationship with Seattle, as residents,
creators, and influencers of its cultural
landscape. Red Shoes emerged in a year-
63
long series of impromptu solo perfor-
Music Theatre Now
mances by Haruko Nishimura in Seattle’s
streets, city parks and neighbourhoods.
Incubated by the full DAE company
in a Frye Art Museum residency and a
residency at director Robert Wilson‘s
Watermill Laboratory of Performance in
New York, Red Shoes was nurtured and
produced in the embrace of an unpre-
that included Seattle’s Frye Art Museum
and St. James Cathedral. The work has
since been developped into a touring
project that works to engage with the
community, architecture and culture of
the venues at which it takes place. Red
Shoes was directed by DAE’s Haruko
Nishimura with original music by Joshua
Kohl and Jherek Bischoff and video by
Leo Mayberry.
 Stefan Żeromski
Theatre

Samotność pól
bawełnianych
Samotność pól bawełnianych

Samotność pól bawełnianych

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields

“I was looking for young directors interes-
ted in challenges and new means of expres-
sion in theatre; directors who would blow
64
fresh air into the theatre repertoire.
Music Theatre Now
tional festivals, as well as gaining fans and
highly-favourable reviews. The director’s
subsequent collaboration with the Natural
65
Born Chillers resulted in further projects,

Music Theatre Now

Radosław Rychcik, who had previously both in the Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kiel-
directed a performance entitled Versus ce and elsewhere. Thanks to the use of live
in the New Theatre in Kraków, was one music, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields
of them. I invited him to collaborate on has an unusual rhythm and expression. The
something and he proposed In the Solitude musicians help the actors to play as if in a
of Cotton Fields by Bernard-Marie Koltès trance, which is a great advantage to the
in an interesting arrangement. Around performance, and full houses show that the
that time he had came across the group audience also appreciate the collaboration.”
Natural Born Chillers (whose members
are Bartosz Ignor, Michał Lis, Piotr Lis and Piotr Szczerski,
Maciej Matysiak), and he was so fascinated Managing and Artistic Director
by their music that he came up with the of the Stefan Żeromski Theatre
idea of a performance-concert. Although in Kielce
the idea of staging musicians playing live
alongside actors delivering Koltès’s texts
seemed risky, I decided to take the risk. The
combination of the group’s music with the
actors’ performance and video projections
by Marta Stoces turned out to be very
successful, as proved by the fact that the
performance was invited to participate in
more than a dozen national and interna-
 Biographies /
Background

Radosław Rychcik
Radosław Rychcik graduated in Polish philology from the University of Warsaw and
studied theatre direction at the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Cracow. He
started out working as Krystian Lupa’s assistant on Factory 2, a performance inspired
by Andy Warhol’s work. In developing his performances Rychcik tries to act on
emotions as strongly as possible: not only does he place extreme expectations on his
actors, he also tests the endurance of the audience.
“It is my dream to arouse emotion in the audience, to touch them and unleash
feelings. I wouldn’t desire any situation in which an audience considered my performances
well-designed theatre. And only that. I choose theatrical means so that the actor, who co-
Samotność pól bawełnianych

Samotność pól bawełnianych

mes out on stage and has to act very strong emotions, has to show his own distance from
the emotions that he will present in the next few moments. He does not pay any attention
to himself but to the fact that he serves. Only then is there a chance that the viewer will
feel something.”

Wojciech Niemczyk
66 67
Wojciech Niemczyk graduated from the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Cracow,
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

having previously studied archaeology at Jagiellonian University. He participated in
many theatre projects whilst studying at drama school, and also has roles in television
productions. He sings, plays the guitar (electric, bass and classical) and dances.

The Music
Tomasz Nosinski
Tomasz Nosinski graduated from the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Cracow
in 2008. He frequently works with director Radosław Rychcik. In fact, Rychcik’s “The music to the show In the Solitude of
production In the Solitude of Cotton Fields determined his professional future as Cotton Fields was created very fast – in
Nosinski has been a resident actor at the Stefan Żeromski Theatre in Kielce since only one week. It was the first time the band
the 2010/2011 season. He had also participated in Krystian Lupa’s workshops. In the had ever worked with director Radosław
Solitude of Cotton Fields turned out to be a tremendous success, and at the end of the Rychcik to create music. Our plan was
2009/2010 season Tomasz Nosinski was honoured by the Kielce press for his role as simple – to write music that perfectly
the Client. matched a particular scene. For example,
when Rychcik said: “Here we need winter”,
we played only dominant minor chords
with a lot of reverb plus icy electronic
drums in order to get a result that we
could work with. The music throughout
the show is different and varied, going
from rock & roll to techno, where we used
elements from the band Kraftwerk. I don’t
think I have ever heard of a performance
before that links so many different music
styles, and what’s more, the music is
played live and fitted to the actors.”

Michał Lis, composer www.teatr-zeromskiego.com.pl

 Theater
Kontra-Punkt

Schlimmes Philip Ardagh turns the world of children

upside down: nothing is the way the
children imagined it would be according
to their parents and teachers. To enjoy a

Ende
book, a reader must be able to free him
or herself from well-rehearsed thought
structures and have a passion for devel-
opping creative thinking. In this way,
taking in the novel becomes a school for
creativity and free thought, the precon-
dition to discovering new worlds.
In The Awful End we have to

The Awful End

distance ourselves from the idea of
transposing everything identically. Yet
how do you portray the surreal? Ideally,
Schlimmes Ende

Schlimmes Ende
we should be confronted with a staging
using puppets that combine human with
superhuman abilities. Amongst the adults’
insanity, Eddie Dickens is the only one
who is apparently normal, and he is a one-
68 69
What’s it all about? Eddie Dickens’ pa- meter-tall puppet.
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

rents suddenly look strangely ‘yellow The Awful End defies catego-
and crinkly around the edges’. That’s risation. In Frank Schulz’s production
why he’s been fetched by his mad Uncle everything can turn into anything:
Jack and even madder Aunt Maud, who musicians become actors, puppeteers
drive him in a large carriage to their become singers, the harpsichordist a
house called Awful End, of all things. horse. And this production cannot be
Philip Ardagh’s education theory is pitch assigned a customary, generic name:
black, the adult world is a nightmare, the even though the music is the defining
director of the orphanage is a horrid and entity, The Awful End is not a children’s
unspeakable woman, and Malcolm, the opera, nor is it a drama with musical
stuffed weasel, is actually called Sally, or inserts, it is certainly not a musical, nor
is it the other way round? Eddie doesn’t does the term musical comedy quite fit.
let anything intimidate him; he conquers
the bearded man with his unpredictable
aunt and, in the role of an impoverished
orphan boy, becomes the glamorous
hero of St. Horrid’s House for Grateful
Orphans.
For Eddie Dickens, the world
of adults is totally unpredictable, latent-
ly cruel and always good for unexpected
turnarounds. But he never gives up and
each time tries to fight his way through
every adventure according to the new
rules of the game.

About
Schlimmes Ende
Since its founding in 1984, Theater Kontra-
Punkt has considered itself to be, in the
broadest sense, a music theatre for
adults, children and young people. In our
70
productions we work with both classical
Music Theatre Now
and early music, but the emphasis is on
contemporary music.
We initiate music theatre
experiments, searching for unusual com-
binations of arts and multi-disciplinary
theatre experiences. Our pieces are
created in collaboration with musicians,
singers, actors, and dancers. Our main
focus lies in the realisation of world
premieres.
We deal intensively with the
possibilities of production location:
theatre as installation (as, for example,
the Rhine Bank Tunnel in Düsseldorf,
Ulrich Rückriem’s sculpture exhibition,
warehouses, etc.) and space as a resona-
ting instrument.
Another speciality is deve-
loping new concepts for family con-
certs. Together with large, national and
international orchestras we develop
programmes that aim to acquaint child-
ren and families with orchestra music
in playfully intelligent ways. We think
of family concerts as an independent
art form, which aspires to make music
more theatrical, to bring professionals
and amateurs (children) together, and to
forge a path to contemporary music.
The production partners come from all
over the German-language region. In
2011, the successful Orchestra Olympics
project was invited to Taiwan and enjoyed
its first staging in Mandarin Chinese.
The last two young people’s
projects with contemporary music, Die
Odyssee – akustische Turbulenzen für
Stimmbänder und Instrumente (The Odys-
sey – acoustic turbulence for vocal chords
and instruments) as well as Tanz der Ma-
schinen (Dance of the Machines), received
the NRW’s broadcasting network’s “Kul-
tur prägt!” prize. In addition, a subse-
quent production received the cultural
prize of the federally-funded MIXED UP
Awards.
The Music
The world is insane. Its rules constantly
change and neither human relationships
nor the laws of nature can be depended
on. What used to be right is now wrong –
and the reverse. And we, that is through
the character Eddie Dickens, have no
resources to oppose the unpredictable
chaos of reality. Or almost nothing.
Except our fantasy. We find the figures
of musical characterisations in everyday
objects separated from their original
purpose – tin cans, air pumps, styrofoam
plates and small percussion objects; a
harpsichord, accordion and brass instru-
ments - Eddie Dickens listens to them,
trying to get a general view of his world.
He alone is the ‘sensible’ one, the one
Schlimmes Ende
who seems to speak normally. All the
others sound strange and are dressed in
musical tones: the orphanage director is
a euphonium coupled with a vocal
ensemble, the circus director sings oper-
71
atically to harpsichord accompaniment,
Music Theatre Now
the police officer rattles like a tin man
with every step he takes, and the horse
is a harpsichord, a clock … song-like pas-
sages change places with slapstick-like
recitatives and purely instrumental mu-
sic. The music wins by reduced means,
and with it, for Eddie Dickens, a reality
in which he orients himself in the awful
end. Eddie’s world is made of tones. And
these tones have the exact meaning that
Eddie, as we, can win by playing them.
www.kontra-punkt.de
 Fanny & Alexander
T.  E .  L .
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who
dream in the dusty recesses of their minds
wake in the day to find it was vanity; but
the dreamers of the day are dangerous
men, for they may act their dreams with
open eyes, to make it possible.”
Seven Pillars of Wisdom,
T. E. L.
Thomas Edward Lawrence
72
Music Theatre Now
T.E.L. is a device for utopian communi-
cations. Two actors are in two different
places, distant in space and perhaps in
time. However, they are always connec-
ted through satellite internet and esta-
blish a remote dialogue. Two different
audiences simultaneously witness their
impossible-possible exchange.
[…]
Then the two actors swap places. So
those who wish to can see the whole
picture, the other side of the coin, the
complete dialogue between the two.
An actress and an actor are on
stage in two different places. The two
places are always linked and this gives
life to a radio correspondence, a remote
dialogue between the two. This type of
performance needs the presence of a
live audience, but it could also be follow-
ed by a remote audience (radio drama).
The themes of radio transmiss-
ion and of being remote are closely linked
to the rise and fall of T.E. Lawrence, as
they are set against a backdrop of war.
The essential themes of the
project emerge from a key parallelism:
T.E. Lawrence’s utopian obstinacy, his
failure, and the utopian obstinacy of dra-
ma in today’s society.
We identified a set of guiding themes
and images which drove the project:
—  The utopian search for independence
of the Arab people/the utopian search
for independence from any form of
power as a spur for artists;
— The failure of the utopia of the Arab
revolt / failure as a daily horizon of
utopia for actors on stage and for
artists in society;
T. E. L.
— Loneliness in facing the utopia of the
revolt / the loneliness of actors on
73
stage and of artists in society;
Music Theatre Now
— Glory / success
— Shame after failure, the shame of
the body/shame, the modesty of the
bodies of actors on stage;
— The sacrifice of the body in the
revolt /the sacrifice of the bodies of
actors on stage;
— The desert where images come from /
an empty scene to be filled with
images;
— L awrence’s multiple identities/the
multiple identities of actors
— The impossibility of total empathy,
difference as a feeling of betrayal / the
impossibility of total empathy with
the work and with the audience.
 About

Fanny & Alexander

Fanny & Alexander is an artists’ workshop founded in Ravenna in 1992 by Luigi
de Angelis and Chiara Lagani. Fanny & Alexander produces theatrical performances,
video and cinema projects, installations, performative actions, photo shows, publica-
tions, conferences and seminars, festivals and exhibitions. Since 2001 it has run Ardis
Hall, a space for productions, rehearsals and drama workshops, and since 2009 it has
run Artificerie Almagià, a cultural facility, under an agreement with the Municipality
of Ravenna and in collaboration with Associazione Almagià.
In 2012, Fanny & Alexander members set up Cooperativa E with the artistic
groups of the Menoventi Company, gruppo nanou, and ErosAntEros.

Luigi de Angelis
Luigi de Angelis is a director, set designer, graphic designer, light and sound designer,
music editor and performer. He studied Gregorian chant and piano. His productions
always stem from an interplay between music, sound and stage, and are inspired by
figurative arts and contemporary music.
T. E. L.

T. E. L.
74
Chiara Lagani 75
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Chiara Lagani is a playwright, writer, linguist, costume designer and actress. For many
years she has pursued complex projects in cultural interweaving and thematic inves-
tigation, leading training workshops in Italy and Europe. She has also participated in
conferences in universities, theatres and cultural centres.

The Music
www.fannyalexander.org

„The ethno-folk soul of this work stems from a choice to compose mostly with pre-exist-
ing recordings, without making new ones. I set off on a musical research trip to North
Africa and the Middle East with Luigi de Angelis. These areas were all touched in some
way by the stories and the figure of Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence
of Arabia. Over the course of some months I was able to collect a great deal of old recor-
dings. The materials I chose mostly date back to the 1950s and 1960s. They are therefore
of great interest for my research because they bring back rites and ceremonies belonging
to villages and tribes from a distant past. I let myself be guided by the musical structures
typical to these places on the shores of the Mediterranean. They are simple in terms of
composition, and for this reason powerful and hypnotic. I was particularly interested in
the insistent rhythm and obstinate repetition of chants and litanies.
The electronic aspects of the work originated from my need to break the origi-
nal structures and replace those rhythmic structures with a more obsessive and sequential
pace. It is therefore also a work of electronic manipulation, but the aim was to hide rather
than to reveal the electronic sound. I wanted to create an all-embracing electronic web, a
structure or cage within which the echoes of that distant world could be present.”

Mirto Baliani
 Oscar
Bianchi
and Joël
Pommerat

Thanks to “I had told myself that I would not write

a classical opera. A priori, it is something
that does not appeal to me. Nor in theatre,

my Eyes
Thanks to my Eyes

Thanks to my Eyes
for that matter. I would never put on so-
called ‘repertoire’. It is not my way into
theatre, which is truly linked to the notions
of creation, imagination and the search for
form. It was evident I would not become an
76 77
‘opera director’ in the same way I am not
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

interested in becoming a ‘theatre director’.
Antoine Gindt approached me with a crea-
tive project. Above all, with a project that
could include theatre. The first discussions
with Antoine were about the possibility of a
theatricality similar to the one I practice.

[…]

Aymar’s parents are a very old woman, who feels useless, and the greatest comedi- And then the idea came quite quickly that
an in the world. His father would like to pass on his artistry, and Aymar really would I would work on my own writing. I had told
love his parents to be proud of him. But, well, Aymar is not made for laughter and myself that if one day I were to approach
captivates on the contrary by its sick sensibility. Every night he meets a strangely shy opera, it would be because I could approach
young woman who attracts him. What guilt when he should be himself completely in it as I do theatre: as an author. Although of
the service of the paternal dream! course, there is also the vital collaboration
of a partner, the composer, who doesn’t
“It seems to me that Joël Pommerat’s text – perfectly suited to his kind of theatre, which exist in theatre.”
is intentionally more prosaic than poetic – would find a musical expression more suited to Joël Pommerat
opera though the sounds of the English language. By which I don’t mean a refined British
English, but an English of the ‘middle ground’, a neutral international interaction. I also
wanted to create a real break between the original work and the opera, yet not change
the story in any way. By using English words (bearing in mind their specific sonic compo-
nent, which is very different to the French one) I could keep a sense of the text, yet at the
same time radically transform its sound. And lastly – and to my mind, most importantly
– I was keen for the poetic experience of the theatrical performance, as conceived by
Joël Pommerat, (the text as pretext) to be supported by the music. Make the spectator/
listener live an ‘other’ kind of experience, deeper, more personal, that is what I wish for as
a composer.”
Oscar Bianchi
 Biographies /
Background
Oscar Bianchi,
music
Oscar Bianchi studied music at the Milan
Conservatory, in Paris at IRCAM, and in
New York he pursued his doctorate in
composition at Columbia University. He
is the recipient of awards such as the
Gaudeamus Prize (2005) and he‘s been
a featured composer in festivals such as
MUSICA Strasbourg, Ultraschall Berlin,
Archipel Geneva, Lincoln Center New
York. Notable compositions are his can-
tata MATRA (2007) for Ictus, Anahata
Thanks to my Eyes
Joël Pommerat,
libretto and stage director
Joël Pommerat (1963) is one of the most important French playwrights and stage
directors of the present day. He founded the Louis Brouillard company in 1990, who-
se activity and reputation has grown considerably since the success of Au monde in
2004. From March 2007 to the spring 2010 Pommerat was artist-in-residence at the
Bouffes du Nord theatre in Paris, associate to Peter Brook. Since 2012, he is asso-
ciate artist at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris. Joël Pommerat has received
the Molière Award for French playwright and companies several times. Most notable
amongst his upcoming projects is an opera with Philippe Boesmans as librettist and
stage director at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, based on his play Au Monde.
Eric Soyer,
scenography and lighting
After studying interior architecture at the École Boulle, Éric Soyer came to theatre
via the English-speaking company ACT, who introduced him to the technicalities of

Concerto (2009) for Klangforum Wien,
Anja Concerto (2010) for the Orchestre
Philharmonique de Radio France, Adesso
(2011) for Quatuor Diotima. Upcoming
projects include works for the Gewand-
78
haus Orchestra in Leipzig under con-
Music Theatre Now
Thanks to my Eyes
staging. Among others, he has done the lighting design for the Partage de Midi by
Paul Claudel (2007, Comédie Française), for The Scream (Le Cri, 2008, for the cho-
reographer Nacera Belaza) and for Les Sentinelles (2009, Nacera Belaza). Eric Soyer
has been in charge of scenography and lighting for Joël Pommerat for the past 12
years. In 2007 he received the prize of best set design from the trade association of
79
Theatre, Dance and Music critics for his set designs and lighting of the Marchands. He

Music Theatre Now

ductor Riccardo Chailly, the Bavarian was nominated for the Molières for his lighting design in 2008 for Je tremble, in 2009
Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble for Canard sauvage, in 2010 for Cercles/Fictions and in 2011 for Ma chambre froide.
Modern, Ensemble Remix, Neue Vocal-
solisten Stuttgart.

Franck Ollu,
musical direction
In 1990 Franck Ollu became the lead
horn player in the Ensemble Modern
(Frankfurt), of which he is now one of
the regular conductors. Since 2003 he
is artistic director of the Kammaren-
sembleN of Stockholm. Over the course
of his career he has directed amongst
others the Ensemble Recherche and
Musikfabrik (Germany), the Asko Ensem-
ble (Netherlands), as well as numerous
symphonic orchestra at an international
level. He conducts works of various
composers, including, with the Ensem-
ble Modern, Landschaft mit entfernten
Verwandten (Heiner Goebbels), ... Ce qui
arrive ... (Olga Neuwirth), Passion (Pascal
Dusapin). Furthermore he regularly
performs at national and international
festivals.
Isabelle Deffin,
costumes
After studying fashion design in Rennes, Isabelle Deffin trained as a costumier at
the school of the Théâtre National de Bretagne. Isabelle Deffin works as creator and
designer for theatre as well as for dance. She worked as a wardrobe designer for
cinema, among others on the medium-length films of Jean-Claude Monod and Jean-
Christophe Valtat, which were awarded prizes at the Clermont-Ferrand festival in
2003. Furthermore she works as assistant on many of the performances written and
staged by Joël Pommerat.
Dominique Bataille,
sound engineer
In the 1990s, Dominique Bataille was sound engineer at the Grande Halle de la
Villette in Paris. He worked with theatre and stage directors such as Jean-Pierre
Vincent, Patrice Chéreau and Jean-Louis Martinelli. He also collaborated with several
composers: Pascal Dusapin for the operas To be Sung and Medea Material, François
Sarhan for Kyrielle du sentiment des choses, James Dillon for Philomela, and finally
Wolfgang Mitterer for Massacre in 2010. In 2010, Dominique Bataille’s recording of
Philomela received the Orphée d’Or Award for best recording of 21st century lyrical
music from the Académie du Disque Lyrique.
The Music
How do you deal with the vocal strength of each individual character?
“By respecting the rules of operatic conventions: these force one to consider the clarity
of the text whilst writing, and to give each character the most appropriate vocal colour
for the role. The role of Aymar, who is not yet a man psychologically, is sung by a coun-
tertenor. This is such a special voice, and the ambiguity of its vocal range seemed to me
to fit the character’s profile perfectly. In Aymar there is a beauty in his naivety that a
countertenor voice is particularly able to reveal. The role of the Father, whose career as
the greatest comedy artist in the world is very dubious, naturally goes to a baritone - the
clichéd voice of the impostor in opera. The two Young Ladies are sopranos, one lighter
and clearer than the other. On the other hand, the exhaustion and the weakness of the
Mother facing the end of her life, made me decide to give that role to an actress rather
than a singer. The physical energy necessary to sing seems actually incompatible with the
expression of this weakness – despite the numerous romantic heroines who die with the
www.oscarbianchi.com full strength of their vocal resources at their disposal … .”
Oscar Bianchi
from an interview with
Christine Prost
 Zhou Long

Three Haunted Soul

Three Haunted Souls is an experimental drama conceived for a small theatre which
employs elements of Chinese traditional xiqu (Chinese traditional theatre /opera)
and treats them with a modern touch. Unlike in a traditional dramatic style, the linear
plot structure is broken and the narrative is acted out, without attempting to tell a
complete story, in an extremely minimalized, abstracted and unrestrained fashion.
Thus the traditional xiqu is performed with a contemporary and innovative spirit – a
concept free from the limitations of space and time. The traditional roles are concep-
tualised and abstracted, they become more individualized, giving them a relevance
还 魂 三 叠

还 魂 三 叠
to today’s society. The ancient ideas, way of speaking, singing, the physical postures
are all constructed and deconstructed, then brought together in a modern form. This
allows a contemporary concept of love, life and moral values to be reflected, as well
80 81
as addressing the eternal notion of love. This work is about an eternal philosophical
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

idea of love that combines modern and ancient understanding.

中国古典戏剧舞台上的“人鬼情未了”
The Ghost on the Chinese classical xiqu stage.

生可以死，死可以生，只有爱不能忘记
Man is mortal and love is immortal.

戏曲表演与现代手段的机巧结合
The combination of the traditional xiqu performance with a modern approach.

古典风韵与当下思维的奇妙穿越
Connection to the classical style with a modern concept.

古代与现代善恶美丑的叩问与碰撞
The collision of kindness and evil, beauty and ugliness between the past and the
present.

古人与今人爱恨情怨的交集与对话
A dialogue of love and hatred, affection and resentment between the ancient and
the modern.

空荡荡舞台，水袖、折扇、手绢，打破时间、超越时间
On an empty stage, water sleeves, a folding fan, a handkerchief, transcend time.

对影成三人，歌唱、吟咏、身段，展现古今、来往生死
The three women’s singing, reciting and physical gestures, allow the past and
present to unfold, oscillating between life and death.
 Director’s words
Three scripts annotate three kinds of spirit.
Three souls achieve three types of life.
Three kinds of Chinese traditional opera present three styles.
Three actresses tell three stories.
Three skills stand for three focuses.
Three intonations depict three states of mind.
Three musical instruments suggest three forms of emotion.
Three shades of colour set off three artistic conceptions.
The choice
of the subject
matter
还 魂 三 叠
Three Haunted Souls has been adapted
from familiar sections of xiqu (Chinese
traditional theatre /opera) works, The
82
Peony Pavilion ‘Love-making in a Dream’,
Music Theatre Now
The Red Plum Pavilion ‘Setting Pei Free’
and The Wulong House ‘Holding Captive’.
The vigour and fervour of Setting Pei
Free, the delicate and subtle character
of Lovemaking in a Dream and the sad,
sentimentality and ambiguity of Holding
Captive dissolve in a minimalistic context
on the simple, and vacant stage. When
the old stories are paraphrased in a
modern presentation, we are able to
capture the traditional cultural quintess-
ence in a brand new theatrical form. The
adaptation of these three excerpts is
performed as a kind of montage, jum-
ping back and forth between the stories,
the fragments are sometimes related,
sometimes not, resulting in a unique
staged vision.
The Characters
international.nacta.edu.cn/en
In each of these excerpts of classical
works the main female character dies
and comes back to life. Each character
is reinterpreted by actresses of today,
revealing the inner world of the women
of the past. Li Huiniang in The Red Plum
Pavilion comes back to this world in
order to carry out a dangerous rescue. A
pair of long fluttering sleeves creates an
atmos-phere of tension and portrays her
brave and decent character. Du Liniang
in The Peony Pavilion is reborn in order to
find her beloved. She uses a folding fan
to represent the character’s elegant and
pure personality as well as her narcissism.
Yan Xijiao in The Wulong House wants
to take her beloved with her to the
netherworld so he can remain her hus-
band eternally. A pretty and coquettish
handkerchief and sensitive movements
of her hands and feet reveal the extreme
selfishness of her quest. The actresses
shape the characters with their body
language as well as the soft and delicate
lines of their singing. They perform their
roles, and yet at the same time they
stand outside their characters as onlook-
ers. They show us three tempers, three
types and three symbols. They represent
their ‘love’ in three different ways.
The Music
The classical style serves as a founda-
tion for the music. Elements of ancient
music are interwoven in a contemporary
musical structure. Kunqu (Kun opera),
Jingju (Peking opera) and Shanghai Yueju
(Yue opera), the three major traditional
genres among the many in China, are
treated in an abstract manner: the resul-
ting minimalism preserves the unique
character of the traditional melodies.
The inner tension of each of the three
female characters is embodied by the
clear and pure sounds of the strings,
recitation and singing. The distinct sono-
rity of the different musical instruments
xun, xiao, zheng, pipa and drum serve to
represent the different characters: the
music supports the acting, as well crea-
ting a background which determines the
还 魂 三 叠
mood of the entire performance. During
the rehearsal process, the songs, the
melodic lines and interpretation were
83
formed through improvisation, playing
Music Theatre Now
music without melody and singing songs
without rhythm – sometimes referenci-
ng the classical system and sometimes
without adhering to these limitations.
Using the improvisational system of clas-
sical music as a starting point, modern
thought is interwoven with classical song
and gesture and movement, resulting in
a new free form or style.
 Three Mile Island is not the reconstruction of a forgotten catastrophe, nor is it an
account of the nightmare that for the first time in recent history shook confidence in
the progressive propagation of nuclear energy. It is, or at least aims to be, purely the
story of a scientist and his human, ethical and scientific experiences.
The case of Ignaz Vergeiner, the true heart of our work, represents in our
view a general paradigm that does not exclusively concern those events in Pennsyl-
vania. In our eyes, the parable of Ignaz is the story of a conflict with science on one
side and power on the other. On one side a solitary man, a scientist who collects safe,
reliable, unmistakable data, on the other a lobby, or several lobbies, defending their
own economic, political and legal interests and questioning the value of scientific
research. Ignaz unmistakably proves that the radiation levels to which men, women,
children, animals, meadows, woods and plantations were exposed between 28 and 31
March 1979 were much higher than the authorities admitted. The principal element of

Andrea Molino
our representation (it could not have been otherwise) is therefore authentic testimony
from those who experienced the tragedy first hand. Together with this, we show some

Three Mile Island –

Three Mile Island

Three Mile Island

84
The Parable 85

of a Scientist
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

of the faces of the accident victims whom we met in Pennsylvania last autumn. The
only element of ‘fiction’ is a narrating voice entrusted to the figure of Sky Woman, a
myth closely connected to the culture of the Iroquois Indians, the legitimate inhabi-
tants of Pennsylvania before they were exterminated by English settlers.
Despite appearances, Three Mile Island is neither an indictment against the
use of nuclear power plants, nor a warning about the hidden risks of using nuclear
energy for civilian purposes. What we are recounting is the parable of a scientist who, music, song, projection and narration. It
thanks to his perseverance, his rigour and his research methodology, manages to is not our duty to judge the final result.
establish a simple and incontestable truth. He fights to ensure that truth is acknow- We do not even know what name we will
ledged, but death keeps him from pursuing his battle. We wanted simply to document give to this creature we have brought to
his heritage and transform it into a performance. We could have chosen to write a life. What is Three Mile Island? An opera,
biography or a scientific paper, or made a film or documentary. Instead we chose the a concert, a story in sound and image, a
most complex route, the only one we know: we have put Ignaz’ existential and ethical multimedia project (to use horrible mod-
parable on stage using the apparently classical instruments of music theatre, namely ern terminology)? This uncertainty, this
doubt, forms part of the same material
of which our ‘show’ is made: a question
mark, that which must necessarily end
any authentic, honest and free testimony.

Guido Barbieri

About
Almost three years ago Guido Barbieri
came to my dressing room after a con-
cert to greet me. We had already met
before and initiated a promising dialogue.
Before taking his leave Guido said to
me: “I leave you with three words: three,
mile, island. Try to put them together
and let me know what you think.” At
that time I had only a vague idea of what
these three words meant. I remembered
an accident at a US nuclear plant some
years ago, yet – like so many others –
I knew neither the details nor the con-
Three Mile Island
sequences or implications of that event.
A couple of weeks later Guido called
me and asked: “So, did you put those
three words together?” We met again in
Venice and Guido told me about Ignaz
86
Vergeiner, about Karl Hoffmann (“a very
Music Theatre Now
talented journalist friend of mine”),
about a car journey at night from Pa-
lermo to Catania whilst he was working
on another project. Even before the
encounter, I knew that I would accept
Guido’s proposal.
A few weeks later, Karl sent
me a first section of the long and
complex filmed interview with Ignaz
Vergeiner that would form the basis of
the project. Examining the footage, I
was overwhelmed by the lightness of
Ignaz’ personality, by his delicacy, his
vivacity. Ignaz did not just use air and
wind to read the truth; it was as if he
himself was made out of air. What
convinced me above all else to accept
the challenge of Three Mile Island was
the feeling that it would be possible to
create an indispensable, strong and vital
relation between the libretto of the ope-
ra – that was still to come into existence
– and the context that had generated it.
We would take Ignaz’ heritage and trans-
form it into music, into words and into
images, ensuring that it reached ears
that would otherwise never have heard
it. The aesthetic and artistic qualities of
what we possessed – Ignaz, the air, the
The Music
The source material for Three Mile Island
was a long in-depth video interview that
Karl Hoffmann did with Ignaz Vergeiner
before he died. First and foremost, this
wind, lightness, delicacy – convinced meant for me that the core of the work
me that the challenge of giving an had to be his voice.
artistic shape to this story rather than a
traditionally journalistic one really had […]
a chance of success. After two years www.andreamolino.net
of study, of analysis and of preparation The sound of his voice, his inflections,
(my correspondence with Guido and accents, pauses, even the smallest
Karl now exceeds one thousand emails!) details that had no semantic meaning
I once again met my companions. but great emotional value, become the
Together we set out for Pennsylvania, core around which the musical dis-
to Harrisburg, to that Three Mile Island course revolves. The voices of the Neue
in the middle of the Susquehanna River. Vocalsolisten and the instruments of the
And together we met Marjorie, Paula, Klangforum accompany it, in the most
Three Mile Island
Ann, Mary, James, Joyce, Kay and Robert: humane sense of the word, delicately
victims and witnesses of the accident. and respectfully. As I have done previ-
After thirty years, their memory is still ously in other works, I gave Ignaz’ voice
alive, their willingness to tell the truth is an instrumental alter ego, the double
still intact. bass in this case. Then I did the same
87
Andrea Molino with the saxophone for the voice of US
Music Theatre Now
scientist Arnie Gundersen. We intervie-
wed him during our research trip to the
US and he appears extensively in the
narration.
The other key element is air,
the medium used by Ignaz to develop
his contribution to truth. Of course I did
not imitate the sound of air with vocal
or instrumental writing, even though
some onomatopoeias may surface in the
musical discourse from time to time.
Andrea Molino

In Michel van der Aa’s cello concerto
Up-close, the traditional interaction of
soloist and ensemble is reflected by a
mysterious, mirror reality seen on film.
When the piece begins, a solo cellist and
a string ensemble sit on the right of the
stage; on the left stands a large video
screen. On the screen we see an elderly
lady sitting among an arrangement of
Up-close
chairs and music stands which parallels
the real-life version on the other side
of the stage. It soon becomes clear that
88
this is only one of a variety of interac-
Music Theatre Now
tions across a hall of mirrors created by
the soloist, ensemble and film.
Up-close, commissioned by
the European Concert Hall Organization
and featuring the Argentinean cellist Sol
Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta,
is thus a cello concerto duplicated and
magnified until it reaches the boundary
of video opera. Are the elderly woman
and the cellist playing out the same role?
The film is seen in excerpts ‘inserted’
into the music, so is the music driving
the film, or the film the music? The music
Michel
van der Aa
Up-close
never ‘narrates’ the film, but somehow
the two layers seem extentions of each
other moving around a common subject.
Furthermore, the live instruments are
augmented with an electronic sound-
track, which at times seems closely
related to their music and at other times
appear to derive from the ‘concrete’
sounds of the action on screen. Are
Up-close
these plural realities or versions of a
single experience?
Much is left unexplained
89
and the course of the piece, including
Music Theatre Now
a striking coup de théâtre towards the
end, provides no easy answers. One
theme that does emerge, however,
concerns loneliness. As in other van der
Aa pieces – such as the video opera One
or the ensemble piece Mask – elements
of an uncanny, inscrutable ceremony are
never far away and in Up-close these be-
come part of the difficult ritual of human
to human contact.
Visual references recall the
methods of the Dutch Resistance of
World War II, but it is the spirit of secre-
cy, protocol and adversity that perva-
des, rather than any specific historical
setting. The woman is apparently trying
to transmit coded messages of some
sort and, at one of the work’s climaxes,
she employs a large mechanical decod-
ing device built especially for this piece
by the composer. As it decodes the
woman’s messages, the machine creates
music of its own. This intertwines with
the sounds of the ensemble, a singular
moment when film and music cross over
into each other’s realms. If anything, we
are left with more mystery, not less.
Tim Rutherford-Johnson

Biographies /
Background
Michel van der Aa,
composer
Michel van der Aa (Netherlands) is a
composer, film and stage director as well
as a script writer. Before studying com-
position (with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius
Up-close
van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen), van
der Aa trained first as a recording engi-
neer at the Royal Conservatory in The
90
Hague. Many of his works are as visual
Music Theatre Now
as they are aural. An important aspect
of van der Aa’s work is collaboration and
interdisciplinarity. He has worked with
leading classical performers such as Sol
Gabetta, Barbara Hannigan as well as the
Portuguese fado singer Ana Moura and
well-known European actors like Klaus
Maria Brandauer and João Reis. He has
directed both the filmed and staged
elements of all of his works. His operas
have been staged in more than a dozen
countries.
Sol Gabetta,
cellist
The cellist Sol Gabetta was born in
Cordoba, Argentina, in 1981. She was
only ten when she won her first com-
petition in Argentina, and has received
many more awards since then. From
1992–94 Sol Gabetta studied at the
Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia
in Madrid, after which she moved to
Switzerland to pursue further studies
with Ivan Monighetti at the Basel Aca-
demy of Music. After further years of
study with David Geringas, she took her
concert exam in 2006 at the Hochschule
für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. Over the
past few years, Sol Gabetta has made
guest appearances with the Munich
Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra, amongst others. Ms. Gabetta
regularly appears at major festivals such
as the Rheingau Musik Festival in Verbier
or at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad. She
has also founded her own chamber
music festival in Switzerland entitled
‘Solsberg’.
Candida Thompson,
conductor
Candida Thompson studied with David
Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music
and Drama. She developed her studies
further at the Banff Centre for the
Arts in Canada and played with several
international orchestras such as Moscow
Chamber Orchestra, The English String
Orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
Since the summer of 2003, Candida
Thompson is Amsterdam Sinfonietta‘s
artistic director and leader.
Amsterdam
Sinfonietta
The ensemble consists of 23 chamber
musicians and its repertoire covers a
variety of styles, extending from the
Baroque repertoire to contemporary
works. The main focus lies on string
www.vanderaa.net/up-close
The Music
ensemble repertoire, including chamber
music performed in string orchestra
format. On occasion, Amsterdam
Sinfonietta perform as a chamber or-
chestra with additional instrumentalists.
The ensemble is characterised by an
innovative approach to repertoire, often
presenting unexpected and exciting
programming combinations. Alongside
performances of mainstream repertoire,
Sinfonietta frequently draw attention to
unjustly neglected or new works.
As a cello concerto it gives me the op-
portunity to display a whole spectrum of
Up-close
technical virtuosity and expressiveness.
But even at a purely musical level there
is a technical aspect – the playback –
91
that, based on conventionally produced
Music Theatre Now
sounds, introduces a new level that is
not an accessory, but rather a dialogue
partner.
The principle of the dialogue
is then further developed by means of
the film level in which I, as the soloist,
suddenly become part of the drama
that, without a concrete plot, leaves
room for reflections in the most varied
directions. Just as the musical playback
already reflects the sounds and places
them in new contexts, the images of
the film also open up an entirely new
perspective of the performance in which
the orchestra and I, as a musician, do not
merely bring to life the notes of a score,
but rather we all become a part of a
mystical action. And thus I am no longer
just a cellist, but also perform very much
as an actress in the room, whereby my
actions are mirrored by the elder woman
in the film. Or is it actually I, who mirrors
the woman in the film? In any case, I am
no longer just the musical soloist here,
but simultaneously also the protagonist
on the stage, an experience that was an
absolutely new and awe-inspiring one.
Sol Gabetta
 Hotel Pro Forma
War
Sum Up
War Sum Up
92
Music Theatre Now
War is as simple and as complicated as
man itself. The nature of war is ever-
changing, adapting to the era’s usable
weapons and to the culture within which
it takes place. War develops new techno-
logy, new strategies, and new opinions.
War Sum Up tells of war through
three main characters: The Soldier is
sent home from war. He suffers from
PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
and no longer feels at home in civilian
society. He returns to the war and dies in
an explosion. A monument is raised in his
memory. His fate and this phenomenon
still exist today.
The Warrior is killed in battle.
His unnatural death prevents his soul
from a natural transition to the world on
the other side. He becomes a spectre,
a ghost who must tell his story in order
to find peace. An old superstition which
still exists in many cultures.
The Spy is captured in the war. In
order to be freed she must relearn her
abilities in martial arts and transform
herself. She turns into a superwoman
and escapes. She is a part of the fantasy-
genre as well as popular culture.
All three stories are framed by
War Sum Up
93
Music Theatre Now
the Woman in Yellow. She is the game
master who starts the war. But she is
also the person who goes on working,
for everyday life must continue even
though there is a war. She is part of the
Civilians’ choir that intensify and expand
the never-ending story of war.
Light and darkness, colour and
pattern in black and white together,
with manga drawings in XL format, form
intense visual narrators.
Kirsten Dehlholm and
Willie Flindt
“The man-machine interface, the new en-
vironment or computer space, which ma-
chine and man inhabit together, is not an
extension of the body but a total environ-
ment. It is the context for a new corporeal
reality, an entirely new world in which war
is conducted, a world into which we are
not only sensorially but also physically in-
corporated and assimilated.” (Christopher
Coker from The Future of War)
 Biographies /
Background
Hotel Pro Forma
Hotel Pro Forma is an international
laboratory of performance and instal-
lations. Perception, perspective and
themes from the world are blended
into a conceptual, visual and musical art
form. Each work is developed through
an almost natural-science approach to
study and research, and subject matter
is often taken from this world-view. 
War Sum Up is the result of
a unique cooperation between Hotel
Pro Forma, the Latvian Radio Choir
War Sum Up
The Irrepressibles
Formed in 2002, The Irrepressibles are a
performance pop orchestra created by
artist and composer Jamie McDermott.
The Irrepressibles perform a ’spectacle’
show, which brings together choreogra-
phy, interactive set, lighting installation
and musical performance to inspire the
emotions of the ‘inner child’ of their
audiences.
Santa Ratniece,
composer
The Latvian composer Santa Ratniece
is considered by many to be one of the
most promising young composers in the

and the Latvian National Opera, with
Kirsten Dehlholm as director. The British
symphonic pop orchestra The Irrepres-
sibles, and Latvian composer Santa
94
Ratniece, composed the new music,
Music Theatre Now
War Sum Up
Baltic region today. She has won several
prizes for her work and participated in
numerous festivals around the world.
95

Music Theatre Now

which is performed by twelve singers
from the Latvian Radio Choir under its
Gilbert Nouno,
conductor Kaspars Putnins. The Danish composer
fashion designer Henrik Vibskov created

the costumes, and the lighting designer
Jesper Kongshaug provided the lighting
with his usual contextual flair.
Kirsten Dehlholm,
direction and concept
With a background in the visual arts,
Kirsten Dehlholm has worked with
performance art for over 30 years. She
began with Billedstofteater (Theatre
of Images) from 1977 to 1984, and she
founded Hotel Pro Forma in 1985. She
created over 100 performances, ranging
from site-specific performances for
museums, city halls and other architec-
turally significant buildings, to perfor-
mances for prestigious venues around
the world, including the Venice Biennial,
Berliner Festspiele and Brooklyn Acade-
my of Music.  musical instrument. The electronics are made so exquisite as to create a sense of inner
Gilbert Nouno is a composer, teacher,
recording sound artist and a researcher
at IRCAM. He was awarded the Villa
Medici Roma grant in 2010/2011 and
the Villa Kujoyama Kyoto grant in 2007.
He holds a Masters and PhD degree in
Acoustics and Signal-Processing applied
to Music from IRCAM and the University
of Paris.
Latvian Radio Choir,
vocals
Founded in 1940 the Latvian Radio Choir
is considered to be one of the most
boldly-innovative choirs in Europe today.
Their vast repertoire extends from early
Renaissance and Baroque music to com-
plex works of contemporary classical
music.
The Music
Kaspars Putnins,
conductor
Kaspars Putnins is a staunch supporter
of new vocal music. For his choir, this
means performing challenging and still-
developing music that often leads into
unexplored territory. He has collabora-
ted with various Baltic composers to de-
velop works with a new musical language
and expression.
www.hotelproforma.dk
War Sum Up is inspired by the powerful expression of Japanese poetry, pop music,
their precision and brutality. The libretto is created with texts from Noh-theatre and
others, written by Japanese masters. The old world meets the new world as the deep
tone of poetry unfolds in an electronic musical universe. Several different musical
expressions and styles combine. Together with the sung voices, newly-composed
classical music creates a spheric, electronic sound. Specially-composed pop music
describes the three main characters in a mix of chamber pop and electronica where
man and machine melt together.
“I was chosen to make pop. Pop is not specific in genre terms and has a line all the way
back to folk-music, everything from a melody in a music box to instruments that repre-
sent country music, to the style of music that one might associate with manga culture.”
Jamie McDermott, composer
“Another dimension of the sound is created by electronics: it is like another acoustic
universe with varying sound sources. Electronic sound space is used as a self-contained
voices, audible only to the internal mind.”
Santa Ratniece, composer
 96
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97

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 98
Music Theatre Now

Credits

99

Music Theatre Now Credits

  B
Blauwbaard


Artistic Consultant
Lara Thoms
Writer,
Flyway Field Guide
Catherine Ryan

Cashiers’ Choir

Sopranos
Indrė Anankaitė
Veronika Čičinskaitė





Costume Design
Joanna Nogueiras Yankelevich
Electronic Device
Yamil Burguener
Video Programming
Synthesizer
Diego Ruiz
Percussion
Daniel Serale

(Bluebeard) Production Manager Erika Zaleckienė Diego Alberti Teatro Argentino

Jane Smith Milda Zapolskaitė
33 ⅓ Collective Producers Vida Valuckienė Assistant Director General Manager
Aphids Altos Ricardo Toro Cr Leandro Manuel Iglesias
Concept/Musical Direction Liucina Blaževič Director of Cameras Art Director
Michael de Roo Co-Producers Virginija Linkevičienė Juan Molteni Marcelo Lombardero
Dramaturgy Next Wave Festival Rita Račiūnienė Production D irector of the Center
Peter te Nuyl Partnered by Kristina Svolkinaitė Teatro Argentino de La Plata for Experimentation and
Musical Arrangements Birdlife Australia Rima Šovienė (Argentina) Creation (TACEC)
Mete Erker and Piano Commissioned by TACEC Martín Bauer
Martin Fondse (2011) & Photographer Kęstutis Pavalkis E ditor of The Grand

Credits

Credits
Daniel Cross (Rosa Ensemble) Flyway, 2012 Live Electronics Photographer Theatre of Oklahoma
2012 Next Wave Festival. Lina Lapelytė Marita Machetta MELOS EDICIONES
100 101
Featured Singer Images courtesy of MUSICALES S.A.
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Stephanie Pan (2012) John Possemato Production Voices of the Nonsense
Soundscapes Independent creative group Vocal Soloists Ensemble

 H
Michael de Roo OPEROMANIJA

 G
Video Sopranos
Douwe Dijkstra, Photographers Lucía Lalanne
Coen Huisman Kęstutis Serulevičius Nadia Szachniuk
and Jules van Hulst Dovydas Petravičius Contralto
Voice-over Artist Simonas Švitra Evangelina Bidart Homework
Kevin Walton Geros dienos! Tenors
Prologue/Lyrics (Have a Good Day!) Martín Díaz François Sarhan
33 ⅓ Collective Juan Francisco Ramírez
Photographer OPEROMANIJA Baritone and Bass Composer / 
Mark Groen El Gran Teatro de Oklahoma Alejandro Spies Director Staging / Design
Composer (The Great Theatre of Oklahoma) Javier Lezcano François Sarhan
Lina Lapelytė Instrumental Ensemble Süden

 F
Librettist Teatro Argentino de la Plata Flutes Ictus Ensemble
Vaiva Grainytė and Marcos Franciosi Juliana Moreno (Brussels)
Director/Set Designer Sergio Catalán
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė Composer Clarinet Saxophone
Costume Designer Marcos Franciosi Federico Landaburu Matthieu Metzger
Flyway Daiva Samajauskaitė Text / Librettist / Staging Violin Keyboards
Lighting Designers Diego Cosin Carlos Britez Jean-Luc Plouvier
Elizabeth Dunn Eugenijus Sabaliauskas Marcos Franciosi Viola E-Guitar
Mindaugas Skuminas Based on the novel Amerika Mariano Malamud Tom Pauwels
Principal Artist Choirmaster by Franz Kafka Cello Trombone
Elizabeth Dunn Milda Zapolskaitė Musical Director Martín Devoto Alain Pire
Sound Artist Sound Director Valeria Martinelli Bass Drums
Lawrence English Valdas Karpuška Scenery / Lighting Facundo Ordóñez Gerrit Nulens
Fabian Nonino
 Bass
Géry Combier

Production
Kunst aus der Zeit,
 M
Maschinenhalle #1



Photographer
Wolfgang Silveri /
steirischer herbst

Production
Elision Ensemble

Commissioned by Brisbane
Festival 2008, Melbourne





Video
Leo Mayberry
Set / Prop Design
Jason Puccinell
Colin Ernst

Bregenzer Festspiele (Machine Hall #1)
Photographer Christine Gaigg,
François Sarhan Bernhard Lang,
Winfried Ritsch and
Philipp Harnoncourt
 N
International Arts Festival
and the ELISION Ensemble
with the support of the
Australian Government‘s Major
Festivals Initiative, managed
The Navigator by the Australia Council, its
Ela Lamblin
Created with the support
of The Frye Art Museum,
Watermill Center a Laboratory
for Performance, Center for

J
arts funding and advisory body, Performance Research,
Composer Elision Ensemble in association with the National Endowment for
Bernhard Lang Confederation of Australian the Arts, Neighborhood
Concept Composer International Arts Festivals. Matching Fund, Mayors
Christine Gaigg Liza Lim The creative development Office of Arts and
Credits

Credits
Josefine singt. Bernhard Lang Libretto phase of this project was also Cultural Affairs Seattle
(K)ein Liederabend nach Franz Kafka Winfried Ritsch Patricia Sykes supported by the Perth and 4Culture
102 103
(Josefine sings. Philipp Harnoncourt Director International Arts Festival.
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

(Not) a recital after Franz Kafka) Stage Design / Light Barrie Kosky Photographer
Philipp Harnoncourt Conductor Ricordi London / Universal Bruce Tom
opera silens Choreography Manuel Nawri Music Publishing Classical
Christine Gaigg Set Design / Costumes

 S
Composer Technology & Alice Babidge Photographer
Wolfgang von Schweinitz Development Light Design Justin Nicholas /
D irector / Staging Winfried Ritsch /  Damien Cooper Copyright Elision
Hans-Jörg Kapp Institute of Electronic Sound Design Ensemble
Dramaturgy Music and Acoustics Michael Hewes
Mascha Wehrmann (IEM) Samotność pól bawełnianych

 R
Stage Design / Dancers Cast (In the Solitude of Cotton Fields)
Costume Quim Bigas Bassart
Marcel Weinand Sara Canini The Navigator Stefan Zeromski Theatre
Sound Design Ella Clarke Andrew Watts
Thomas Schmölz Alexander Deutinger (Countertenor) Composers
Assistant Director Christine Gaigg The Beloved Red Shoes Ignor Bartosz
Laura Nerbl Robert Jackson Talise Trevigne Michał Lis
Milla Koistinen (Coloratura soprano) Degenerate Art Piotr Lis
Cast Anna Majder First Siren / The Crone Ensemble Maciej Matysiak
Asher O’Gorman Philip Larson Director / Staging
Soprano Eva-Maria Schaller (Bass baritone) Composers Radosław Rychcik
Frauke Aulbert Magi Serra Foraste Second Siren / The Fool Joshua Kohl The Natural Born Chillers
Two Narrators Veronika Zott Omar Ebrahim Jherek Bischoff Ignor Bartosz
Kurt Glockzin, (Baritone) Director Michał Lis
Ludwig-Christian Glockzin Production Third Siren / Haruko Nishimura Stage Design
Violoncello steirischer herbst 2010 The Angel of History Primary Performers Marta Stoces
Agnieszka Dziubak Deborah Kayser Haruko Nishimura
(Baroque alto) Dohee Lee
 Production Stage Direction Sound Design Cast 还魂三叠
Stefan Zeromski Theatre Frank Schulz Damiano Meacci (Three Haunted Souls)
in Kielce (Poland) Puppet Direction Francesco Casciaro Aymar
Photographer Evelyn Arndt Actor Hagen Matzeit Chinese Academy
Maciej Żórawiecki Cast Marco Cavalcali The Father for Dramatic Art
Grzegorz Kaczmarczyk / Tour Manager Brian Bannatyne-Scott
Copyright Zeromski Theatre Actress Marco Molduzzi The Mother Director
Annette Bieker Anne Rotger Zhou Long
Cast Bariton Production A Young Woman in Dramatist
Matthias Sprekelmeyer Fanny & Alexander / the Night Yan Quanyi
Dealer Matthias Flohr Tempo Reale Keren Motseri Music Designer
Wojciech Niemczyk Puppeteer A Young Blonde Woman Jiang Jinghong
Client Michael Hatzius Photographer Fflur Wyn Styling Designer
Tomasz Nosinski Vanessa Valk Enrico Fedrigoli The Man with Long Hair Liu Xiaoqing
Trombone/Accordion Antoine Rigot Lighting Designer
The Natural Born Jörn Wegmann Han Jiang
Credits

Credits
Chillers Band Cembalo Ensemble Modern Production
Frederike Möller Chinese Academy
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Bass Norbert Kleinschmitt Thanks to My Eyes Production for Dramatic Art
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Bartosz Ignor Festival d’Aix-en-Provence
Keys Producer Oscar Bianchi Co-production
Maciej Matysiak Theater Kontra-Punkt and Joël Pommerat T&M-Paris / Théâtre de
Keys / Guitar Co-Producer Gennevilliers CDNCC
Michał Lis Theater Freiburg Composer Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Three Mile Island
Drums Oscar Bianchi Festival Musica - Strasbourg
Piotr Lis Photographer Libretto / Staging Andrea Molino
Maurice Korbel Joël Pommerat With support of SACD,
Based on his play, of Fonds de Création Lyrique Composer
Grâce à mes yeux Andrea Molino

 T
(translated by Production on Tour Libretto / Dramaturgy
Schlimmes Ende Dominic Glyn) T&M-Paris avec le soutien Guido Barbieri
(The Awful End) Musical Director du Réseau Varèse et de Andrea Molino
Franck Ollu Pro Helvetia, Fondation Video
Theater Kontra-Punkt Scene / Light suisse pour la culture Karl Hoffmann
T.E.L. Eric Soyer Commissioned by
Composer Costumes T&M-Paris/Réseau Varèse Speaker
Hauke Berheide Fanny & Alexander / Isabelle Deffin and Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence Birgit Bücker
Libretto Tempo Reale Sound Design Editions Durand / Universal (Karlsruhe)
Annette Bieker Dominique Bataille Music Publishing Classical Andrea Mirò
(after Philip Ardagh) Composer Artistic Collaborator (Rome)
Musical Direction Mirto Baliani to the Director Photographer
Norbert Kleinschmitt Director / Stage / Philippe Carbonneaux Philippe Stirnweiss Neue Vocalsolisten
Dramaturgy Light Designer Artistic Collaborator Stuttgart
Thalia Schuster Luigi De Angelis to the libretto
Stage Design / Dramaturgist / Marie Piémontèse Soprano
Puppet Construction / Actress Sarah Maria Sun
Costume Chiara Lagani Susanne Leitz-Lorey
Jan Kocman

Mezzosoprano Production Photos / Video stills Production
Truike van der Poel ZKM – Centre for Arts and disquiet media Hotel Pro Forma,
Countertenor Media, Karlsruhe (Germany) Photographer Latvian National Opera
Daniel Gloger in co-operation with Acca- Joost Rietdijk Associate Producer
Tenor demia Filarmonica Romana, Sarah Ford /
Martin Nagy IUC (Istituzione Universitaria Quaternaire

 W
Baritone dei Concerti), Rome Co-Production
Guillermo Anzorena Latvian Radio Choir
Bass Photographer Latvian National Opera
Andreas Fischer Felix Grünschloss / Ultima Oslo Contemporary
Copyright ZKM – Music Festival
Klangforum Wien Centre for Arts and War Sum Up Concert Hall Aarhus
Media Karlsruhe Royal Danish Theatre
Flutes Hotel Pro Forma Odense Theatre
Thomas Frey

 U
Clarinets Music Photographer
Bernhard Zachhuber The Irrepressibles Gunars Janaitis
Credits

Credits
Saxophones and Santa Ratniece
Gerald Preinfalk with Gilbert Nouno
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Trumpet / Flugelhorn Vocals
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Anders Nyqvist Up-close Latvian Radio
Violoncello Choir
Andreas Lindenbaum Michel van der Aa Libretto
Contrabass Texts from classic
Beltane Ruiz Composition / Video Noh theatre edited
Percussion Michel van der Aa by Willie Flindt
Adam Weisman Artistic Director Conductor
Björn Wilker Candida Thompson Kaspars Putnins /
Cello Sigvards Klava
ZKM – Centre for Arts Sol Gabetta Direction
and Media, Karlsruhe Kirsten Dehlholm
Actress Musical Direction
Sound Direction, Vakil Eelman Kaspars Putnins
Interactive Environment Production Concept
Holger Stenschke Frank van der Weij for Willie Flindt
Medial Staging the Disquiet Foundation Kirsten Dehlholm
Bernd Lintermann (Stichting Rusteloos) Light Design
Manuel Weber Jesper Kongshaug
Nikolaus Völzow First performance 11 March 2011, Costume Design
Video Editing  Stockholm Konserthuset. Henrik Vibskov
Anna Falkenstern Amsterdam Sinfonietta Set Design
Sol Gabetta, cello Kirsten Dehlholm
Zürcher Hochschule der Willie Flindt
Künste, Media Arts Commissioned by Jesper Kongshaug
 uropean Concert Hall
E Manga Drawings
The Cloud, interactive Organization, Fonds Podium Hikaru Hayashi
video installation Kunsten, Het Concertgebouw.
Written for Amsterdam
Sinfonietta, Sol Gabetta
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Music Theatre Now Notes

 Imprint

Publisher
German Centre of the
International Theatre Institute (ITI)
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin

Tel. + 49 (0)30 61 10 76 50

info@iti-germany.de
www.iti-germany.de

Imprint
Music Theatre Committee
112 113
of the International Theatre
Music Theatre Now

Music Theatre Now

Institute (ITI)

www.mtnow.iti-germany.de

Editors
Laura Berman
Penny Black
Annette Doffin
Michael Freundt
Maximilian Grafe
Viviana Marrone

Translation
Antonella Amato
Penny Black
Marie Fol
Andrew Jarman
Karl Edward Johnson

Graphic design
Jan Grygoriew
www.jangry.com

Printers
Tastomat