Mario Engelmann, Franziska Kronfoth, Christina Schmitt, Maria Buzhor, Friedrich Engels
NOperas! finally on a double track: “Chaosmos” and “Kitesh” meet in Wuppertal.
Final rehearsal “Chaosmos”. The management teams from Bremen and Halle arrive. After the extensive preparation time together: first view for them on a stage result, which should then go through further stages of development.
Theatre can always go wrong, even more so when it enters new territory like here. Then a deep breath of relief and a detailed pat on the back for all of us after the end of the run.
On site are also “Hauen und Stechen”: Mammoth meeting in the afternoon for “Kitesh” with the departments of all theatres. Arrangements about cast and organizational procedures should be finalized. Not easy. Each of the theatres brings different conditions into play.
Rimsky’s opera (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitesch and of the Virgin Fevroniya) – in Russia it is part of the standard repertoire, but hardly in Germany. In this project, it is intended to provide the starting point for an examination of utopian thinking. Lay choirs won locally form an important part of the concept – it is about connection to the people of the respective city, also about the special aura of individuality and authenticity, which a professional opera choir can hardly provide.
Only after a longer course the performance should land in the house and on stage. Already in December H&S have explored Halle. Mario Engelmann, technical director of the Wuppertal Opera, leads the team through the opera house and adjacent outdoor areas. The parcour – the legend of Kitesch goes back to the Hunnensturm – will start in a tent. Where could it be set up?
In front of the theatre is the “Engelsgarten”. It does not have anything to do with angels, but with a Wuppertal textile entrepreneur whose birthplace is located here and whose name is not an unimportant one in the history of utopian thinking. Could one be more deeply involved in the work on “Kitesh”?
