Nico and The Navigators impress in Berlin with "Empathy for the Devil".

Berlin/MZ - Impressive emotional cinema at Radialsystem Berlin. On Thursday evening, "Empathy for the Devil" by Nico and the Navigators celebrated its premiere in the house that provides space for ambitious productions of the independent scene. Finally. Actually, their new work was supposed to be performed at the Konzerthaus am Gedarmenmarkt - with a large orchestra. But due to corona, nothing came of it. Now there is a chamber version whose power and intimacy keep you in suspense for over 90 minutes.

Founded in 1998 at the Bauhaus Dessau by Nicola Hümpel and Oliver Proske and still led today, the Navigators have long since gained great recognition. The format is called "Staged Concert", which, however, rather soberly describes the sensual opulence and fascinating variety of what is offered.

Like earlier productions by the Berlin-based troupe, "Empathy for the Devil" is a breathtaking mixture of opera, concert, drama and dance. In short - a unique musical theatre created by Nicola (Nico) Hümpel, the artistic director, Oliver Proske, who is responsible for stage and technology, the dramaturge Andreas Hillger and the whole, fantastic ensemble.

Thematically, the evening revolves around good and evil, life and death. What if the omnipresence of the dark is interpreted as a free pass for one's own actions? Wouldn't good, on the other hand, lack specialness if evil did not exist at all? And, finally, doesn't the Lord of Darkness also possess charm? Don't we ourselves like to wear a rigid "poker face"?

"Sympathy for the Devil" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, here in the German version by Udo Lindenberg, tells of this dichotomy of human existence and provides the intellectual background for the Navigators' theatrical ethical debate.

They conduct this debate with the help of their own texts and quote Shakespeare, accompanied by music from Handel to Weber, Bartók to Purcell. It begins with David Bowie's haunting "The Man who sold the World", Ted Schmitz, a tenor who can play all registers, gives his part just as magnificently as Anna-Doris Capitelli gives hers. When the mezzo-soprano delivers seemingly feather-light coloratura, it is easy to understand why she was brought to La Scala in Milan. Much applause at the end for all, especially for Florian Graul's dancing, Nikolay Borchev's voice and Martin Clausen's strong playing.

Before the devil threw a spanner in the works, the exploration of a classic of German music theatre had already begun. "The Konzerthaus invited us to develop a free production on the pact with the devil for its 200th anniversary," recalls Nicola Hümpel, director and artistic director of the ensemble Nico and the Navigators. The house had opened in the summer of 1821 with the premiere of "Freischütz" by Carl Maria von Weber. "With various works on the devil theme, we conceived an evening for large orchestra with conductor Jonathan Stockhammer - a fantastic collaboration." The idea was to incorporate fragments of "Weber's Freischütz" in a newly adapted version.

However, due to Corona, everything turned out differently: the performance was still to take place with the Konzerthausorchester, but no longer in front of an audience. The evening would have been broadcast on the internet. "We now had to stage it completely on film," says Hümpel. But even this preparatory work was for naught. "In the end, the orchestra was also dropped, we conceived a chamber version for which we had to restage everything. That way, the drama got a stronger share."

What remained of the "Freischütz" was the Wolfsschlucht scene. In it, the protagonist casts the so-called free bullets. Six pieces of this magic ammunition hit their target in every case. But with the seventh, the devil takes a human victim. "This reflects our current behaviour, for example with regard to climate change," explains Hümpel. "We ignore our responsibility, but at some point it catches up with us. At some point, that seventh bullet hits." The question of the origin and mode of action of evil is at the core of "Empathy for the Devil". There is something enormously seductive about the concept of the demonic. "Because it distracts from the fact that we humans, in our passivity or silent consent, are always co-responsible, which we would prefer to simply delegate away." Conversely, this means that although humans like to block out negative consequences of their actions, they rarely really feel like consciously causing harm to others in the process. Meat consumption is an example. Thus, the misery of animals is suppressed until one consciously perceives the cruelties that happen in slaughterhouses - which not infrequently leads to a change in eating habits. "One has found numerous rifles in the trenches of earlier wars that were loaded several times but never fired. The inhibition threshold to kill someone face to face is also not eroded per se by war," Hümpel emphasises. "Humans behave cooperatively, that has proven to be an evolutionary advantage." Of course there is a fascination with evil - but its glorification in literature, film or music has little to do with reality, he says. "Even with mass killers or serial killers, there is a back story. It has been shown that often perceived suffering and traumas suffered are compensated for with the perpetration of violence."

The various aspects are reflected in the evening's texts, which include, for example, a Shakespeare sonnet, excerpts from Rutger Bregman's "Basically Good: A New History of Humanity" as well as passages written for the evening by Nicola Hümpel in dialogue with Navigators. The musical round dance builds a bridge from early baroque to contemporary pop: Henry Purcell meets David Bowie, Carl Maria von Weber meets the Rolling Stones. In their emblematic song "Sympathy For The Devil", the devilish has a clear human connotation - and always has political implications. So it says: "I shouted out / Who killed the Kennedys? / When after all / It was you and me."

People thus have it in their hands to shape not only their society but also their future. But this requires a view that includes togetherness. "Democracy includes freedom, but also responsibility. The belief that we can always do what we want leads us down the wrong path. We were in a position to cause pandemics. So we also have a responsibility to make our society fit for the future again." Hümpel has no sympathy for opponents of vaccination and people who cannot observe the simplest rules of hygiene. "They are destroying the culture, they are risking lives and they are not showing solidarity."