HALLE/MZ. An inscription that heralds happy days stretches across its stomach: "Et in Arcadia ego" are the words on the body of the statue having its feet polished devotedly by an exotic beauty. Arcadia, then, is the name of that lost paradise – the home of shepherds and nymphs that lies somewhere in the middle of nowhere and is only to be reached via this "Anaesthesia". An extra wide array of sounds This “baroque narcosis”, presented by Nico and the Navigators together with the musical ensemble Franui at the opening of the Handel festival in Halle, is an extraordinary dance in a baroque corset. Composers Markus Kraler and Andreas Schett have borrowed melodies from operas such as "Admeto" und "Amadigi", "Rodelinda" und "Rinaldo" as well as from oratorios such as "Belshazzar" und "Israel in Egypt" and adapted them to suit their unique line-up: the saxophone slurs the notes about, the double bass slaps its way lazily through the continuo, the dulcimer delivers its dulcet tones. But on top of everything there is the embracing and struggling of violins and trumpets, cornet and clarinet, tuba and accordion – an extra wide array of sounds that is to place Handel within jazz and then bring him back again to the usual marriages and funerals. Sure enough it is pure baroque that is sung – if under hindered conditions. The fingers of others proliferate like brows above the eyes of soprano Theresa Dhouly as she sings the praises of the "Bel Piacere", baritone Clemens Koelbl hangs upside down at the stage entrance or carries a Harpy around on his shoulders. Terry Wey’s wonderfully melting countertenor voice amazes as would a paranormal phenomenon when he yearningly sings "Piangerò" – a captivatingly tender moment in which the act of creation arises from the music. This is the real theme of the production with which Nicola Hümpel and her stage designer Oliver Proske have bestowed a real exportable hit on Halle’s Neue Theater: the majestic, animal power of sound, with the power to crown kings and transform shy couples into frenzied beasts, to establish identities and rob people of their senses. From the changing tableaux vivants in which the ensemble initially assembles itself the pasticcio unfolds as a play of many parts. It evokes the decadent boredom of the rich and lonely woman and shows how the subjects themselves construct their ruler, real feeling disrupts calculated emotion and the singing is enough to literally give you goose pimples. Body languages It is an ensemble that is equally polyglot in a corporeal sense that has entered into this coproduction with the Bregenz and Herrenhausen festivals as well as with the Grand Théatre Luxembourg. Here we have the steely elegance of the Japanese Yui Kawaguchi, the lightning-quick precision of Alberto Spagone and the shy nonchalence of fellow Italian Filippo Andreatta. And while the Belgian Sylvie Merck is making her own special contribution to hysterical performance and Patrick Schott is moving about the stage as a bone of contention incarnate and as a smiling angel of death, Adrian Gillott blends into the pastel-coloured company as a somnambulant master of ceremonies. Done up in a cap reminiscent of Handel’s and employing the blasé tone of voice of a real dandy, he tells of the parallels between "Powder" and "Power" - and of the precious "Tulips", which could also be misunderstood as "Two Lips". Although it may well be that not every single member of the premiere’s audience understood these enigmatic recitatives, the audience had clearly grasped the deeper sense. And so midnight on the festival’s first day brought with it unanimous and jubilant applause for the most daring performance to have featured in Halle’s Handel festival in recent years. "Anaesthesia" sleepwalks its way towards the spirit of baroque music, on a quest to find its lasting quintessence. The props, however, bring to mind the words of Emily Dickinson: "Hope is the thing with feathers." The last performance takes place on Saturday at 7.30pm at the Neue Theater.

Magical creatures, story-tellers and furry animal fetishists – with its production “Anaesthesia” the ensemble of Nico and the Navigators and Franui has developed a round dance full of strange encounters in the Orangerie at the Herrenhausen festival. Nicola Hümpel’s Berlin-based theatre ensemble has put together a pasticcio opera on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Georg Friedrich Handel’s death. Three singers, six poets of dance and movement as well as the Austrian musicians of Franui whisk you away for almost two hours into a baroque picture book, a gallery of strange faces and characters that could have come straight out of a midsummer night’s dream. Anything is possible in this mating dance, since the creatures operating within it have no defined form. Cat, crow, cannibal – as volatile as tigers, the actors indulge in their desires, whether that be a dog-like race to copulate or playful finger theatre. Yui Kawaguchi eclipses all others with her fascinating transformation arias. All of which has something to do with Georg Friedrich Handel, since he himself used pasticcio extensively during his time as opera impresario in London. Whenever an audience tired of a show, he would replace a few sequences with other pieces from his enormous repertoire. This cheerful capriciousness also reigns in Anaesthesia. The eleven-man Franui ensemble accompanies the ecstatic goings-on on stage with a pot-pourri of twenty-four of Handel’s best-known works for the stage. Arias, choruses and instrumental pieces remain at times close to the Handel standard and at others move far away from it – not for the least because the ensemble uses the saxophone and accordion, hardly typical instruments for baroque music. Such a complete piece of art arises from the foundations of baroque forms thanks to careful staging. It approaches Handel and his time with respect yet at the same time views him from the perspective of the present day, with a wondering devotion and a cheeky sense of distance.

BREGENZ - To commemorate the composer George Frideric Handel, the Bregenz Festival performed the music theater "Anaesthesia" with the help of Nico and the Navigators and Franui. A piece based on improvisation, where not every movement is scripted. Last Wednesday, the workshop stage of the Bregenz Festival was transformed into a dreamscape in which the music played exactly the same role as the play itself. Director Nicola Hümpel united Handel's classical music with free acting, creating a common ground for actors and musicians. A musical river journey with a lot of feeling and expression. Middle Ages of the 21st century The stage simply covered with curtain in front of the ensemble and two aisles to the audience room prepared enough space for the eight characters. Each belonging to a different cultural background, grotesque and equally comic texts in German, English, Italian, Japanese and French are jumbled, enchanting and confusing the audience at the same moment. A very agile Japanese woman dances through the picture, while an inconspicuous blond youth sings the most beautiful arias. The story, which is not supposed to be a story at all, is narrated by a casual gentleman with a beautiful British accent and at certain moments does not leave a dry eye. The costumes, which give the actors and musicians a unique expression, leave room for dreams and longing. The music uses the technique of pastiche - a model that Handel himself made use of several times as a London opera entrepreneur: Hits from successful pieces - operas and oratorios - are concocted into a new piece. How much of the past is still reality? The piece raises many questions, including how much of the past is still reality? Thanks to the unconventional way of performing the play, kitsch has no place and leaves enough room to let the audience decide for themselves.

Bregenz - "I too in Arcadia" has been painted on the belly of one of the dancers, who is being dragged around like a Greek statue. With the music of the jubilarian Georg Friedrich Händel, the musicians of Franui, the singers and the total work of art of "Nico and the Navigators", the audience also finds itself in a magic realm of baroque fantasies. With their approach to Schubert, the Austrian musicians around Andreas Schett and the Berlin troupe around Nicola Hümpel had already thrilled the audience three years ago, and now Anaesthesia is developing an extraordinary pull at the Bregenz Festival in the interplay of dance, language, acting, stage design, costumes, lighting and, of course, music. For the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, the musicians have done what was common practice in his time: from existing arias, duets, choruses and instrumental movements, a new opera has been carpentered, as it were, to which everyone in the audience can presumably think up their own plot. One finds oneself in a world of nymphs and shepherds and follows a wondrous round dance in which, of course, it is about love and desire. In the enchanted forest of feelings Fluffy sheepskins, luxuriant or simple dresses, the poetic expressive dance of Yui Kawaguchi, the playful interaction of dancers and singers or the cultivated purring English of Adrian Gillott, who walks across the stage of Oliver Proske like an Indian prince, conjure atmosphere into the dark workshop stage. Theresa Dlouhy with her clear soprano voice and baritone Clemens Koelbl, who knows how to sing upside down, are just as involved in the actions as the young countertenor Terry Wey with his immensely soft alto voice and sparkling coloratura. This wondrous hustle and bustle is carried by the highly musical arrangements of the group Franui: saxophone and wind clarinet mix with the voices, strings and brass meet, harp, guitar, dulcimer, double bass and accordion play the basso continuo, musicians unite in the choir. All this sounds natural, swinging or tender, opens the ears for Handel's melodies. Andreas Schett and Markus Kraler have not so much chosen the well-known hits, but rather drawn from the abundance of other gems. In the powerful music and flood of images of a good 90 minutes, this Anaesthesia has a narcotizingly beguiling effect and is unfortunately already over with two performances.

But the real discovery of the festival is the Berlin-based ensemble “Nico and the Navigators”. It calls this Handel-Pasticcio that it put together itself “Anaesthesia”: a poetic, highly aesthetic physical theatre with a decidedly intelligent musical arrangement courtesy of the Austrian musical ensemble “Franui”, whose inclusion of the dulcimer and saxophone lends totally new colours to Handel’s music, without distorting it. Simply enchanting.

One should not look for a red thread in "Anaesthesia". Even if the soprano pulls it out of the mouth of one of the performers at the end. It's fun like everything else in Nico and the Navigators. After Schubert, this time the team around director Nicola Hümpel took Handel to task. Together with the Austrian music band Franui, named after the alpine meadow of an East Tyrolean village, they created a playground for baroque theater and its arsenal of characters from today's, by no means seriously meant point of view. In 32 numbers from 24 operas and oratorios, Franui merrily plunders the Handel fundus, plays music in the original, plunders and shreds the noble sound with foreign instruments such as accordion, dulcimer, saxophone, tuba. Franui sits on a podium behind gauze in the depth of the peep-box, as Oliver Proske has simply and effectively built it into the stage-free space of the Radialsystem, becomes visible in the parts without singing, and even sings along with the ensemble. Otherwise, the arias, duets and tercets are the responsibility of singers, among whom Terry Wey impresses with his lightly controlled, coloratura-assured countertenor of radiance and piano culture. The many small actions of the Navigators, consisting of dancers, actors and acrobats, also ensure the insensitivity to pain promised in the title. Right at the beginning, Patric Schott is carried out as a living sculpture and cleaned by Yui Kawaguchi. Again and again she will polish the actors during the 90 minutes of the show, if she is not dancing. Et in Arcadia Ego, it says Schott brushed on her belly. To that baroque Arcadia belongs a saber-armored Turk with a Handelian house cap, who speaks the recitatives, intersperses them with many a topical reference. He talks about material imported from Asia, while Kawaguchi touches silk, then lolls himself erotically on ram skins, as two reclining women wear them in the entrance picture and as they are constantly on the scene. A mistake in the daily routine, Adrian Gillott continues, could have cost social status back then. Image after image is lined up in a constant flow. A headless woman's gesticulating hands sprout from her brain, a man hovers one-legged over the scene, feathers become wings, a woman shrieks prima donna-like in time to the music, Kawaguchi stabs a feather into the flesh of a man on the floor. Where have all the greats gone, the narrator asks, Alexander, Caesar, Frederick the Great, Che Guevara. "Piangerò" from Handel's "Giulio Cesare" is not far away, not "Nel riposo" from "Deidamia", which baritone Clemens Koelbl has to sing upside down from the portal. Quietly, thoughtfully, without any special climaxes and affects, everyone goes to the ground whitened for the death march from "Saul", having previously rolled the pavement of the footbridges into possessable moons under a wall of fog. One enjoys this and many other fantasy ingredients to the Handel ragout, winner on points remains the master from Halle.