Radialsystem V: “Petite messe solennelle” – with Nico and the Navigators

Gioacchino Rossini dedicated one of his last works, the Petit Messe Solenelle, the "Little Festive Mass," to none other than the "dear God" himself. The Berlin dance and theater company "Nico and the Navigators" has taken this mass as a model for their new piece of the same name. A sacred composition is thus the basis for a piece that is supposed to be about "creeds of the 21st century". Director Nicola Hümpel and her navigators stay very close to Rossini's original composition and from this fundamental decision arises a basic problem of this evening. The original version of the "poor little Mass," as Rossini called his work, is heard, the original version for two pianos and a harmonium, for soloists and 12-part choir. The Latin Catholic Mass ritual is heard in all its splendor and beauty: from the Kyrie, Lord have mercy on us, to the multiple Creed, to the Agnus Dei, to the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world. Thus, dramaturgically, the stage drama of birth, crucifixion and resurrection is given, in all its firmly established solemn-festive slowness, even sluggishness. Since this production is intended to ask about the possibility or impossibility of faith in our time, Nicola Hümpel has underlaid the singing with pantomime, acting and dance - on these three levels, however, the rather matte critique of faith is negotiated. In addition, the sung creed is countered with the skepticism of a great doubter, a young man whose name is Benedikt, of all things. This Benedict enters the stage at the beginning through a large futuristically curved arch of clouds, which shimmers silvery-white and seems airy and massive at the same time - whether this may be paradise remains open. Immediately, this skeptical Benedict gets into an argument with a man in a hooded cloak, who could be God himself or an angel or a priest. The disputes between the two, faith versus knowledge and enlightenment, permeate the entire production. They almost always end in a joke and neither position will win this argument. A dispute that also continues in the chorus, which was cast by Rossini not without intention with 12 singers. However, they really do not act like the 12 apostles here. The Credo "I believe in God, the almighty Father" is sung with crooked faces, jubilation, rapture and ecstasy of faith are completely exaggerated gesturally and thus unbelievable. A singer repeatedly breaks out into hysterical, incredulous laughter, a rosary becomes a shackle and noose around the neck, and symbolic white roses are mercilessly decapitated with scissors. Such parodistic, ironic and mocking dissociations are also found in the short moments of conversation and dance between the individual parts of the mass, and quite fundamentally with atheistic and agnostic arguments known for centuries, and also with the mocking lamentation of our zeitgeist, the helpless search for faith in our time. This search for faith with the help of Far Eastern religions, wellness cults, bioresonance therapy and nature indulgence is also taken for a ride here. A singer tells of his mystical experience in a cow pasture - of all things, he had an apparition in the tear of a cow. The interweaving of song, theater and dance, a trademark of Nico and the Navigators, for which the troupe was awarded the George Tabori Prize this year, it works only moderately well here. The soloists and choristers do have their performing moments, and the one on stage who moves the most, who makes the music dance with his body, is indeed the conductor, the almost delirious Nicholas Jenkins - but the dramaturgy is firmly cemented by the mass, with acting, singing and music alternating almost statically. Quite unlike other choreographic musical stagings by Nico and the Navigators, the hinges between genres grate here; this has been seen better in their pieces on Schubert, Handel and Bach. The only dancer, Yui Kawaguchi, as the incarnation of the devil, mainly indulges in goblin-like body gymnastics, sometimes also as a seemingly pregnant apparition of Mary - the dance is clearly too short. And the lyrics, which were created in long group-dynamic processes from improvisations, remain mostly on a rather simple, silly level - real criticism of religion or real criticism of the relativism of faith and our values, as represented by Pope Benedict the 16th, does not take place. Musically this evening is extraordinarily successful, soloists and choir are great and Rossini's "poor little mass" is brought to life in all its complexity. Faith and skepticism, longing and irony, melancholy, sadness, melancholy and glittering lightness can already be found in Rossini himself - he himself showed himself to be a torn man in this work. In terms of content and scenery, however, this production remains unsatisfactory. This picture theater remains on the level of small mockery, it lacks daring and risk-taking, the evening remains lamely in the vague. It is not enough to juxtapose the sacred and the profane. But still: the audience responded with enthusiastic applause.

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