“Fleisch & Geist” – Berlin Premiere
A woman sits at the front edge of the stage, speaking more than singing. Her tangled blonde hair hides her face. A sombre mood dominates: muted colours – violet, mustard yellow, brown, dusty rose. A hovering into other times – war, plague – and yet still the yearning for spiritual depth. Hence books, everywhere books, filling the shelves along the back wall of the stage. In contrast, the irrepressible desire for immediate life.
Nicola Hümpel, director and head of Nico and the Navigators, interweaves in Fleisch & Geist the music of Heinrich Schütz and some of his contemporaries with present-day sounds, with dance and with sheer physical action. Exuberant like a Baroque firework, but always close to the abyss…
The contradictions are palpable: in the richly varied music of Schütz, but also in the contrast between the sung words and the mimed or danced expression. Dance seduces while God is being praised. At times macabre, unsettling, then suddenly uproarious. And again and again, musical departures that surprise…
The works of Nico and the Navigators are collective creative processes with ever-changing teams. Nicola Hümpel has been collaborating with dancer Yui Kawaguchi for many years. The male dancers have also appeared repeatedly, as have the two mezzo-sopranos and the bass-baritone. The musicians led by violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir, however, are new to the ensemble…
For ten weeks they worked intensively. In parallel, the complex stage set took shape – with elements that can transform into a staircase leading to an altar, or carry the singer or flautist rolling across the stage. Symbolic props such as medieval ruffs are coquettishly used as fans or as tutus. In one scene, even oversized book spines transform into such a ruff, then into the wings of an eagle…
And then the books – so many books – ultimately torn, shredded, rendered useless, a sign of absolute end-time atmosphere: Apocalypse Now.