Yves-Klein-Himmel über dem MiR (© MiR Pedro-Malinowski_Quadrat)
Two theatres will be involved in NOperas! in the 22/23 season (a third may join in next year). The Bremen Theatre, which is planning its fourth NOperas! production, will be joined by the Gelsenkirchen Musiktheater im Revier. It is a very good acquaintance. In 2006 the feXm realised Lucia Ronchetti’s “Der Sonne entgegen” with it, then in 2017/18 the five-part project “ingolf” by Daniel Kötter and Hannes Seidl. “ingolf #3”, in which there were no actors other than the visitors themselves, later toured several independent venues in Germany and can still be found here on Youtube.
There is a production backlog everywhere. “Kitesh” had to be postponed in Bremen until the following season, when “Obsessions” is also scheduled to premiere there. We discussed for a long time whether NOperas! should even launch a new call for proposals in this situation, before everything that had been postponed had been worked through. But the independent music theatre scene has had two hard years. When it finally starts performing again, it will have to consolidate itself anew. It would be a fatal sign if, at this moment of all times, the only funding programme that exists for them were to be suspended for a year.
