GATES / Gäste! (Guests!) - 4 Operellas

The four “operellas” - short operas, created by four authors and four composers – concentrate on the strange and ambigous relationship between hosts and guests – hospitality with its unwritten duties, widespread rights and mysterious bans. The pleasures and struggles of hospitality in a small setting also reflect emblematically the great political challenge of closed borders and open gates. The program consists of four operellas and five short pantomimic interludes.

Theory and practice [Prologue]*

Karussell

Libretto. Radek Knapp / Composition. Mirela Ivicevic

Unexpected guests oust their defenceless host and redesign his house completely, until he must admit, that his home is no longer his castle... Radek Knapp wrote a parable about the dominance of zeitgeist and lifestyle.

I was invited by sirene to be the musical guest in Radek Knapp’s story Karussell. Although more used to the role of the concept’s „host“ I easily got to the „feeling myself at home“ part of the visit, as me and Radek share the same desire to question the contemporary social - in this case consumerist - conformities and their impact on the freedom and life quality of the individual. (Mirela Ivicevic)

bariton. tenor. soprano / flute. clarinette. violoncello. percussion

Too soon! [Intermezzo]*

Axi

Libretto. Antonio Fian / Composition. Jaime Wolfson

Two women spend their time watching their neighbours on observation cameras. They are so occupied with the shocking news – the lover of the younger lady is dating an unknown woman – that they don´t notice what´s  going on behind them. A thief breaks into the flat and tries to steal the jewelry of the older lady. But then he realizes the observation monitor....

soprano. mezzosoprano. tenor / flute. accordion. violoncello. percussion

Culture clash [Intermezzo]*

Inventur

Libretto. Brigitta Falkner / Composition. Fernando Riederer

Chelifer Cancroides, the book scorpion, and Psocides, the book louse, fight their battles in the library. The lyrical text of Brigitta Falkner introduces the audience to the microscopical world of clandestine guests.

Short opera? Shorter than Wagner’s Operas. A Opera, shorter than Wagner’s, about insects. Insects? Yes, scorpions, Acari, lice and same others. A grotesque short insect opera about two people (are they woman and man?) and their small demands in a microscopic world. (Fernando Riederer)

baritone. soprano / flute. accordion. violoncello. percussion

Idealsymbiosis [Intermezzo]*

Monadologie XXIV .... The Stoned Guest

Libretto. Lorenzo da Ponte / Composition. Bernhard Lang

Bernhard Lang is deconstructing und rewriting the famous finale of Don Giovanni. The statue of the Commendatore visits from the afterworld to take furious revenge.

bariton. bariton. tenor / flute. accordion. violoncello. percussion

Please invite me! [Epilogue]*

*Pantomimes from Kristine Tornquist