Season 2020/2021
Hauen und Stechen
Kitesh
Music: Alexander Chernyshkov (new composition) and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (” Die Legende von der unsichtbaren Stadt Kitesh “, 1907 / Arrangement: Roman Lemberg)
Director: Franziska Kronfoth
Dramaturgy: Maria Buzhor
Stage, costumes: Christina Schmitt
Video: Martin Mallon
Musical direction: Roman Lemberg
Team. The music theatre collective “Hauen und Stechen” was founded in 2012 by the music theatre directors Franziska Kronfoth and Julia Lwowski in Berlin. The focus of its work is the examination of works of opera literature and their translation into a new music theatre of disparate art spaces and sound worlds. The group runs a sensual, emotionally charged theatre that leaves room for improvisational impulses and seeks direct contact with the audience. Classical music repertoire is often overwritten, re-contextualized and short-circuited with elements of pop culture.
Project. Hauen und Stechen began their career not so long ago with improvised performances in the rooms of a small Berlin gallery. After successful deconstructions of the opera repertoire at Sophiensääle, Kitesh led the collective for the first time to the realm of city theater – the premiere in Halle was immediately followed by invitations to further works at Staatstheater Stuttgart and Bayerische Staatsoper. The starting point for the production was Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Legend of the Sunken City of Kitezh”. Hauen und Stechen used it as a vehicle for a complex study of the loss of utopias, transforming it into a sprawling extravaganza that led first through the theater’s exterior, then through its interior, and finally then into the auditorium, where the audience was immediately subjected to savage attacks by Mongol warriors. Rimsky’s music was similarly superscribed and pop-culturally supplemented. A reductive re-instrumentation freed it from all romanticism. Alexander Chernyshkov countered it with his own contemporary sounds. Like Chaosmos, Kitesh had to pay tribute to the pandemic: the Wuppertal performances were cancelled, and the further development in Bremen took place with a one-year delay.
Initial production: Oper Halle (premiere: 18.10.2020)
Further development: Theater Bremen (Premiere: 08.07.2022)
Dates: 18.10., 24.10.2020 (Oper Halle), 07.07., 08.07. 09.07 2022 (Theater Bremen).
Due to the flood damage of summer 2021 at the Wuppertal Opera, the stage of a second development of this project was cancelled. Due to the pandemic, only two performances could be given in Halle instead of the planned three. At the same time, the further development of the project in Bremen was postponed to the following season.
Cast Halle
Anke Berndt (18.10.) / Christina Rümann (24.10.) (soprano), Martin Gerke (baritone),
Marlene Lichtenberg (mezzo-soprano), Michael Zehe (bass), Gina-Lisa Maiwald (drama),
Viola Tepe (soprano), Jacqueline Zierau (soprano) / Yifan Li (percussion), Andrej Lakisov (saxophone)
Halle Opera Choir / Student Choir “Chorespondenten” Halle / Ballet Studio Teska /
State Orchestra Halle
Choreography Ballet Studio: Teska Maria Buzhor
Dramaturgy Oper Halle: Kornelius Paede
Production management Halle Opera House: Steffi Khazhueva
Lighting: Peter Erlenkötter
Rehearsal: Peter Schedding
Stage management: Berd Bunk
Soufflage: Anke Hoheisel / Regina Karpinski
Assistant directors: Chang Tang, Konstantin Züllich
Set design assistance: Charlotta Hench
Assistant stage designer: Therese Mieth
Assistant set designer: Oper Halle Yaroslava Sydorenko
Dramaturgy internship: Friederike Brendler
Cast Bremen
Patricia Andress, Angela Braun, Gina-Lisa Maiwald, Ulrike Mayer, Emil Borgeest, Christoph Heinrich, Radwan Alhalak
Tom Goemare, André Kollikowski (percussion), Anatoli Jagodin, Simon Wendel (trombone), Evgeni Lukyanchyk (clarinet, saxophone), Yu Sugimoto (piano), Wen-Yi Tsai (flute), Hanna Weber (cello), Christa Schmidt-Urban (bass)
Opera Choir of the Theatre Bremen
Civic Choir
Dancers of ballet school Davenport
Musical direction: Roman Lemberg, Rolando Garza Rodríguez
Electronics: Alexander Chernyshkov
Lighting: Joachim Grindel
Video assistance: Iwo Kurz
Dramaturgy: Roland Quitt, Brigitte Heusinger, Friederike Brendler
Adaptation: Choreografie Jacqueline Davenport
Conducting civic choir: Thomas Ohlendorf
Assistant director: Josef Zschornack
Equipment assistance: Constanze Wolf, Wieland Lemke
Inspizienz: Anne Moreau
Soufflage: Ursel Hoffmann
Costume assistance: Reina Schmidt-Häuer
Photos © Theater, Oper und Orchester GmbH Halle, Falk Wenzel
