Viktor Ullmann‘s Cornet Rilke, in a new version by Malte Giesen and Fabian Gerhardt
World Premiere on September 14, 2018. With additional performances through October 19, 2018
Seemingly unimaginable: Viktor Ullman, deported and declared a “Jew” by the German National Socialists, composed music in Theresienstadt to the text by Rilke which idealizes the madness of war and heroic death to German soldiers like scarcely any other: Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (The Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke). The melodrama received its world premiere in the ghetto there in 1944 and Ullmann was murdered in Auschwitz not long after.
Cornet continues to fascinate as a dark romantic story about life and death and as a testament that, in the darkest times, “our desire for culture is adequate for our will to live”. (Viktor Ullmann)
Our project presents the entire text for the first time – supplemented by the composer Malte Giesen to accommodate one actor, one singer and two musicians.
Composition: Viktor Ullmann/Malte Giesen | Direction/Script: Fabian Gerhardt | Music Direction/Production: Markus Syperek | Scenography: Rebekka Dornhege Reyes | Video: Cavo Kernich| Dramaturgy: Bernhard Glocksin
Featuring: Hrund Ósk Árnadóttir and Dennis Herrmann as well as Malte Giesen (live sounds) and Markus Syperek (piano)