Review Munich Biennale

...Death was also the main topic at the Biennale the day before. It was about the question of whether fifty secure years or 88 uncertain ones are the better perspective on life? In other words, a guarantee of life or the risk of dying every day? Elias Canetti dealt with this question in the 1950s when he wrote his thought experiment The Limited. The topic has become unexpectedly topical. In the meantime, thanks to genetic engineering, human life expectancy can be predicted with increasing precision, perhaps one day to the nearest year. Even now, interested people can take various tests and have their risk of cancer and Alzheimer's disease evaluated. The composer Detlev Glanert turned the play into an entertaining and somber melodrama, i.e. an opera in which only speech is used. A long time ago melodramas were once fashionable, so it was a gamble to revive this forgotten musical art form, and it paid off in every way. In the Temporaries, people are named like their programmed age, which they all carry around on a necklace. So the luckier ones get to call themselves 88 from birth. Those who know to the day exactly how long they have to live may face an abyss of boredom, despair of the rest of their lives, or become an imposition on everyone else because of their many years. Director and set designer Nicola Hümpel brought this to the stage of the Cuvillièstheater with a lot of wit and tempo. In the end, everyone involved realizes that their programmed age was just a hoax. But what follows from this? A freedom that not everyone is willing or able to handle. For almost two hours, this melodrama captivated the audience with its gripping, often ironic, sometimes aggressive music. Detlev Glanert is one of the most gifted and theatrical composers of his generation. He always writes dramatically, i.e. action-oriented, and in this case he even composed mainly during rehearsals and was thus able to react to all changes. A well-deserved premiere success that I hope will be replicated elsewhere. Overall, the Munich Biennale for New Music has become much more audience-friendly this year - it has dared a lot: winning is not necessary in opera.

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