ECLAT 14

terra nera

Music in scenes^WP

Music and concept: Saskia Bladt
Sound objects, equipment: Sophie von Arnim
composition dramaturgy: Martin Spura

texts by Stefan George, Hilde Domin, Ingeborg Bachmann, Sappho, Georg Trakl, Walther von der Vogelweide, Ulf Stolterfoht, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gyoson, Reiner Kunze, Oswald Egger, Anna-Sofie Lugmeier and Steffen Popp

Neue Vocalsolisten
Johanna Zimmer, soprano/Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano/Truike van der Poel, mezzo-soprano/Daniel Gloger, countertenor/Martin Nagy, tenor/Guillermo Anzorena, baritone/Andreas Fischer bass

Emily Yabe, violin
Jens Fuhr, piano
Chasper-Curò Mani, baritone
Elizabeth Waterhouse, dance
Eliane Fankhauser, recorders

Co-production Munich Biennale and Music of the Centuries Stuttgart

Saskia Bladt, Sophie von Arnim and Martin Spura have worked together intensively for many years. They develop clear spatial concepts, which become visible through sound objects, movement and light and are played on through the musical-scenic composition.
The poetry of Sophie von Arnim’s visual work is based on purely functional sound sculptures: objects, clothing, and movement develop from an inner musical necessity. These sound objects decisively influence the sound world of Saskia Bladt, while Martin Spura illuminates and contextualizes the individual moments in the overall flow of a work through mythological and poetic interpretations.

The three artists explore integral music theatre, i.e. scenic compositions on the basis of mythical opera themes, which invite us not to be psychologised in the classical sense of director’s theatre, but to be composed scenically. The three are linked by close collaboration with violinist Emily Yabe, baritone Chasper-Curò Mani, pianist Jens Fuhr, dancer Elizabeth Waterhouse and medieval researcher Eliane Fankhauser.
The Neue Vocalsolisten’s team of experimental singers will be joined by this special and harmonious team. Together they will premiere the music theatre project terra nera at ECLAT, which began at the Munich Biennale last summer.

»With the romantic idealist Don Quixote, we plunge into the black earth and experience failure as something primal human. But even here, in the darkness of the fathomless, sparks of light shimmer. They appear as sounds, voices and colours that reflect the echo of the dark, mysterious in an earthly shell of grief, pain, longing, hope and love«. (S.B.)