Biennale 2014 ended

...I am still gnawing on Detlev Glanert's Canetti music for the play "Die Befristeten", updated by Nicola Hümpel to include genetic life planning implications. It was played fabulously intensively, unforgettable the countless howls and laughs of Philipp Caspari dressed in women's costume and pumps, the unbelievably hypocritical mourners with the ladies Valerie Pachner, Marie Seiser and Michaela Steiger or the Asian body bends of Yui Kawaguchi. Staging and Glanert's score emerged in cross-fertilization during the rehearsal process. This read as special for the state theater company, but should be anything but unknown to colleagues who work for film and independent theater. So should it have read "Biennale goes Freie Szene"? Probably not. Because how theatrically beautiful it was to see a piece of the Biennale on the revolving stage of the Cuvilliés Theater. After all the acoustically unsatisfactory halls like Muffathalle, Carl-Orff-Saal and Reaktorhalle, one can appreciate a real theater again. It started with the turning of the revolving stage, which was covered with potter's fresh foils and on which, in turn, a bulbous primal mother was turning on a potter's wheel. That alone made a sound from which the music could have evolved. Glanert's music combined noise with discreet revue sounds and dolcissimo expressionist glacée, was played beautifully by the ensemble pianopossibile and reminded one of a soundtrack that could have been part of "Die Manns". I look forward in any case to his next opera, where there will be singing again!...

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