Abstract Pieces

Experience a modern version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth twice: once from his perspective and once from hers. The multimedia spatial composition by Composer in Residence Manos Tsangaris presents the story of the legendary lovers in a new and unusual way in a production by Michael Höppner - a highlight at the end of the festival.

Monteverdi, Gluck, Tsangaris: no musical theater innovation without Orpheus and Eurydice. But this time everything turns out quite differently: instead of romantic renunciation after their return from the underworld, the mythical couple now find themselves struggling on the plains. The highlight of this composition is the experience of the same piece twice. "To look at each other constantly is fatal to love," reads one sentence from it. And so He and She, together with the instrumental soloists, who are equal performers, act back to back, each for a part of the audience sitting opposite each other. During the intermission, the audience switches sides and experiences the action once again from a different perspective. The foreground becomes the background, the background becomes the foreground, foresight and memory intersect in the moment. 
In this way, a delightful theater of perception unfolds, giving the famous myth a surprising twist. 

Composition and musical direction Manos Tsangaris
Production Michael Höppner
Costume and mask making Jule Saworski
Video Andreas Huck and Roland Nebe (Warped Types)
Dramaturgy Simon Berger

With Marlene Gaßner (She, mezzo-soprano), Alik Abdukayumov (He, baritone), Alba Gentili-Tedeschi (piano 2), André Kassel (piano 1), Louis Bona (viola), Jone Bolibar Nunez (bass clarinet), Evdoxia Filippou (percussion), Jasper Höhn (MC) and extras of the DNT

Sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.