Alles klappt
Composition commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale, and financed by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
A production of the Munich Biennale, in cooperation with the Residenztheater Munich; Theaterakademie August Everding; and enoa (European Network of Opera Academies), with the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission
funded by the German-Czech Future fund
Composition: Ondřej Adámek; libretto and direction: Katharina Schmitt; musical direction: Ondřej Adámek; stage and costume design: Patricia Talacko; dramaturge: Götz Leineweber; speaking coach: Caroline Scholz Ott
With: Kathrin Zukowski (soprano), Thérese Wincent (soprano), Landy Adriamboavonjy (soprano), Steve Zheng (tenor), Dominic Kraemer (bass), Tobias Müller-Kopp (baritone), Jeanne Larrouturou (percussionist), and Miguel Ángel Garcia Martin (percussionist)
"Dearest children. Arrived safely. Sleeping well. Warm. Don't worry! Concerts and other things. Packages continuously with license stickers. Opportunities to cook. Stay healthy! Always thinking of you."
A group of archivists cultivate a collection in a, as it were, careful and disaffected manner. It appears as if they have surrendered themselves and their memories to the repository. During a company party disturbances in the operations occur: objects possess the archivists, and they begin to tell their stories in strange voices. Based on archive material in the Jewish museum in Prague, a trust catalogue Adámek's grandfather helped to compile, letters and postcards from the Adámek family's estate, the propaganda texts, and the unfaltering strategy of optimism summoned by the postcards, Ondřej Adámek composes word for word, phoneme for phoneme musical gestures between whispering, rhythmic speaking, screams, and singing. Impersonal voices mechanically repeat themselves, and interrupt a counterfeit good piece of news from a beloved relative written shortly before he died. At first the deceased appear in human form and then later on in their natural form: as a cupboard, as a rug, as a kitchen device ... Neither pure negation nor an overabundance of positivism provides an escape, for the past is not dead, it has not even passed.
Ondřej Adámek composition
Ondřej Adámek, born in 1979 in Prague, studied composition at the music academy in Prague and at the conservatory in Paris. He composes orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electro-acoustic music, and he works with choreographers of contemporary dance. He has received numerous commissions for compositions from festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage; Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik; Agora Festival (IRCAM, Paris); Les Musique (GMEM, Marseille); Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music; and musica viva, and he works with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien; Orchestre National d'Île-de-France; Les Percussions de Strasbourg; the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra; SWR Vokalensemble; SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg; and Ensemble Intercontemporain. His works have received numerous international awards. In 2010 Adámek came to Berlin as a guest artist in the DAAD artists' program, and he has lived there ever since.
Katharina Schmitt libretto and direction
Katharina Schmitt, 1979 in Bremen geboren, studierte Theaterregie an der Prager Akademie der musischen Künste. Sie arbeitet als freischaffende Regisseurin und Dramatikerin. 2006 gewann Schmitt für ihr Stück Knock Out den Jakob-Michael-Reinhold-Lenz-Preis für Dramatik. Ihr Stück SAM wurde 2010 bei den Autorentheatertagen am Deutschen Theater Berlin in einer Einrichtung von Sebastian Hartmann gezeigt; nach Inszenierungen in Wiesbaden, Bielefeld und Prag inszenierte sie das Stück 2012 selbst im Rahmen einer Residenz am Watermill Center New York. In ihrer Regiearbeit beschäftigt sie sich mit Formen zwischen bildender Kunst und Theater. Seit 2012 ist sie eine der Hausregisseurinnen des Prager Theaters Studio Hrdinu. Zudem arbeitet sie regelmäßig als Librettistin und Regisseurin im Bereich Musiktheater. 2016 inszenierte sie György Ligetis Opern Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures, die Eröffnung des Festivals New Opera Days Ostrava, 2017 Jiří Kadeřábeks Oper Kein Mensch, zu der sie auch das Libretto geschrieben hat, am Prager Nationaltheater.
Patricia Talacko stage and costume design
Götz Leineweber dramaturge
Caroline Scholz Ott speaking coach
Cast & credits
Composition: Ondřej Adámek
libretto and direction: Katharina Schmitt
musical direction: Ondřej Adámek
stage and costume design: Patricia Talacko
dramaturge: Götz Leineweber
speaking coach: Caroline Scholz Ott
With: Kathrin Zukowski (soprano), Thérese Wincent (soprano), Landy Adriamboavonjy (soprano), Steve Zheng (tenor), Dominic Kraemer (bass), Tobias Müller-Kopp (baritone), Jeanne Larrouturou (percussionist), and Miguel Ángel Garcia Martin (percussionist)
Funded by
