The composition team1 meets for the first time in the spring-like capital.
On the first evening, of course, it’s off to the pub, where else to go with all the happiness!
We discuss the first libretto drafts and look for suitable forms of expression, tonal conceptual equivalents to the story.
Opera, the conservative, the established music system. Noise as a call for freedom, punk as a sledgehammer. We want to deconstruct opera.
We discuss experimental approaches to the voice,
Diamanda Gallas.
Chainsaw Man too.
The transition from sound to voice reminds us of Hermeto Pascual and we imagine inviting him and his flow into our piece.
But already dead! What a pity!
The transition from sound to voice as a psychological process. The Electronic Voice Phenomenon could enable us to make the transition from radio noise to spoken voices and chants.
How can spoken language be composed, tonalised, modulated or rhythmised?
How can we create interesting forms of audience participation?
The attempt to compose as a foursome is also new territory for us.
We want to use songs, classical composition, electronic soundscapes and the noisiness of our stage objects.
After the meal, we show Richard various songs from agitprop and begin to develop initial sketches from them.
Overall, we realise that we see the libretto as a collection of material.
A scene plan will serve as the basis for our composition, which we want to finalise in the large group over the next few weeks.
Theatrical elements, psychology, text, music and objects are to be given equal weight in the development process.
We don’t want to establish an artistic hierarchy of a department. This is time-consuming and small-scale, but we trust that something that transcends us all can grow from the diversity of all the voices in our group.
The next joint appointment on site, in addition to endless Zoom meetings, will be the first viewing of the stage design at the end of May in Kassel.
There we can finally start to move from theory to action.
1 Richard Grimm, Mathias Baresel, Antonia Beeskow
