Sergei Nevsky‘s documentary opera revives the fate of a farmer and a student from Leningrad’s gay subculture at the end of the 1920s as a »homage to a fascinating generation trying to preserve its dignity under the extreme challenges of its time«

For POETRY AFFAIRS, five poets and five composers from ten different European countries joined forces to explore the multifaceted relationships between language and music.

Eight performances between concert, installation and music theatre were created from the most diverse perspectives of poetry and composition.

Music theatre for young audiences aged 5 to 9

Clemens K. Thomas (music)

Miriam Götz (director, dramaturgy)

Martin and his teddy bear Bä invent a time machine and set off on an adventurous journey …

A piece about friendship, trusting and helping each other, immersing in fantastic worlds, and the boundless imagination of play.

The transmedia music theatre piece FRAME by Malte Giesen comments on the shifts and manipulations of perception in a complex, global, digitalised, and media-driven world.

With works by

Hanan Hadžajlić, Jug Marković, Ana Pandevska, Nina Perović, Petra Strahovnik, Helena Skljarov

Against the backdrop of a drifting, populism- and war-threatened community in Europe, the Biennale Zagreb (2023) and the Neue Vocalsolisten invited six composers from the six states of the former Yugoslavia to artistically engage with the impacts of the Balkan Wars, which continue to significantly shape the societies of their home countries today.

A video-concert-architecture about twelve identities from the Mediterranean region.

Twelve composers from Mediterranean countries have each written a work for the Neue Vocalsolisten. Video artist Daniel Kötter travelled to the twelve countries of origin and captured the different situations of the artists and the regions on video. Architect Sofia Dona designed the architectural framework for the multi-part event.

With works by

Iris ter Schiphorst, Nikolaus Brass, Evis Sammoutis, Bernhard Lang

At the heart of the project are artistic perspectives on the life-altering phenomena of Parkinson’s disease.

What unites all the compositions is their celebration of the fragile beauty of life in all its facets, providing a resonance space for the sadness over life’s transience while attempting to answer the profound questions of perception and identity.

Music theatre by Samir Odeh-Tamimi

»Philoctetes is an outcast, an offended person, a potential avenger—today, we would say: potentially a terrorist.«

(Etel Adnan: Notate zur Tötung des Philoktet bei Heiner Müller. 2004.)

»The person who lives among others is incapable of pure and truly selfless action. I, on this island, follow myself, understand myself—less Greek with each passing day, more human…«

(André Gide: Philoktet oder der Traktat von den drei Arten der Tugend. 1904)

»They are here. Everywhere. They explore the ground for us, wrap around root fibres, absorb messenger substances, and send us their information.«

HYPHEMIND is a hybrid music theatre about the interweaving and networking that hyphae and mycelia so fascinatingly demonstrate to us in all areas of life.

music

Andreas Eduardo Frank

text and direction

Matthias Rebstock

Voice Affairs

initiates artistic border crossings in which European art music is infected by the diversity of Lebanon’s experimental music scenes.

With works by

Cynthia Zaven, Raed Yassin, Dániel Péter Biró, Aya Metwalli, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Youmna Saba, Manolis Manousakis, Panos Aprahamian (video installation)

The Neue Vocalsolisten project was developed and co-produced by:

Akademie der Künste Berlin, Irtijal Festival Beirut, Musik der Jahrhunderte Stuttgart, Onassis Cultural Center/Stegi Athens, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival.

François Sarhan wrote the libretto for his musical theatre ‘Une Philosophie dans le Boudoir’, based on the novel of the same name by the Marquis de Sade, and created a highly artificial stage set in the form of a hanging paper sculpture.

»I see Buenos Aires as a manifesto. Every element in it has interested me at some point—perhaps it is a comprehensive catalogue of what interests me.«

(Simon Steen-Andersen)

As a sought-after countertenor and performer, Daniel Gloger devotes himself entirely to his work. Performing in a different city every week and rarely sleeping in his own bed, he lives a nomadic lifestyle that requires absolute dedication. The boundaries between work and private life are blurred.