Gipfeltreffen neuen Musiktheaters im Pausenfoyer: Roman Lemberg, musikalischer Leiter »Kitesh«. Marc Sinan, Komponist »Chaosmos« (© Selfie)
The opera sets clear rules for the relationship between sound, language and visual events. Anyone who ventures into newer forms of music theatre, on the other hand, who starts from scratch, must first negotiate the most basic principles for himself anew. E-mails and telephone calls within the “Chaosmos” team still revolve around this topic. None of the art levels should be “obedient servant” anymore, for Marc Sinan the optimum has not yet been reached in Wuppertal, he wishes for thinning of the material and less overlapping of the information levels.
Like on the Wupper in January: NOperas! summit meeting now on the Saale. Composers and musical directors of two production teams cross paths in front of neighbouring rehearsal stages – for “Chaosmos” vocal rehearsals begin; for “Kitesh” it is a matter of preliminary coordination with singers in the complex process of the piece development that has begun.
Dull feeling of both teams on arrival, still the press reports about internal quarrels in Halle. However, both projects are then met with enthusiastic commitment. It is nothing new for this ensemble to try out the unusual.
An essential moment for the work of the feXm: the meeting of different horizons of experience – Andreas Fischer was engaged in Halle for the bass part of “Chaosmos”, he is a founding member of the Neue Vocalsolisten, and he brings to the quartet his rich experience in dealing with contemporary music.
This day will be a par force ride for the sopranos Anke Berndt and Yulia Sokolik, who are involved in both productions. Alexander Chernyshkov leads improvisations in order to get to know them in detail as vocal performers and then tailors his compositions to their individual needs. Roman Lemberg is also involved in the composition of “Kitesh”. Anyone hoping for a clear structure of the conventional distribution of tasks would have to despair even more when Lemberg explains the way H&S works: “That the vocal ensemble is also in demand when selecting musical material. That there is hardly anything like main and supporting roles at H&S. That the vocal parts will be clearly divided, but not beyond that the roles. That it must first be established who is playing which character at which moment … NOperas! has fallen in at the Saale.
