Modern homage to George Frideric Handel

The Berlin theater group "Nico and the Navigators" and the Tyrolean ensemble "Franui" presented "Anaesthesia" as an Austrian premiere. Baroque music, modern dance and drama have been combined by the Berlin theater group "Nico and the Navigators" and the Tyrolean ensemble "Franui" to create "Anaesthesia", which they call a pastiche opera. On Wednesday evening, the production celebrated an acclaimed Austrian premiere on the Werkstattbühne of the Bregenz Festspielhaus as part of the festival series "Kunst aus der Zeit" (KAZ). The focus of "Anaesthesia" is the music of George Frideric Handel. Andreas Schett and Markus Kraler from the ensemble "Franui" have woven musical quotations from 24 of Handel's best-known works into an arrangement, which is given additional interesting timbres by the idiosyncratic instrumentation with accordion, dulcimer and saxophone. Nicola Hümpel (direction) and Oliver Proske (stage design) rely on atmospheric baroque imagery. The interplay between the dark and wild passions of the baroque and the strict stylistic laws of the art of this time are impressively conveyed by the poetic physical theater of the ensemble "Nico and the Navigators", especially the dancer Yui Kawaguchi impresses with her acrobatics. The performance of the three vocalists is also impressive: Therese Dlouhy (soprano), Terry Wey (countertenor) and Clemens Koelbl (baritone). The production, which had its world premiere at this year's Handel Festival in Halle, is a co-production between Neues Theater Halle, Bregenz Festival, Festwochen Herrenhausen and Grand Théatre Luxembourg and will be shown in Berlin and Luxembourg in November.

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