Thomas Köck's "journey down the linguistic river into the heart of the darkness of European colonialism as the origin of a global capitalism" (Christine Dössel, Süddeutsche Zeitung) had caused a sensation at the Münchner Kammerspiele in 2021. The "poetic, enchanting, highly musically composed language" had already met with a lot of live music in that production.
Now Johannes Maria Staud has turned the complex material into an opera. Andrea Moses, who had already directed Johannes Maria Staud's opera Die Weiden (The Willows) based on a libretto by Durs Grünbein at the Vienna State Opera, was responsible for the production of the work, which was launched at the Kunstfest Weimar and will be shown in six performances until 21 December. The Staatskapelle Weimar will perform under the direction of Andreas Wolf; the live electronics are implemented by the SWR Experimental Studio.
In the Brazilian jungle in the 16th century conquistadors - like in Werner Herzog's famous film Aguirre - are on the move, ruthlessly subjugating people and nature in search of a supposed Eldorado. In contemporary America, the opioid crisis as a man-made epidemic is killing the middle classes in their suburban settlements. A blind seer looks back at the once "New World" from the future. The missa in cantu, which reveals itself here as a scenic requiem, an oratorical swan song to our way of life, becomes missing in cantu, being lost in song.
Kunstfest Weimar
Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar
