Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – STEGREIF.orchester – Juri de Marco – Ulrike Schwab
World Premiere 10 October 2019. Performances through 10 November 2019
Don Juan – a timeless myth? In search of answers we go back to the origin of the legend. To Seville. At his grave we gather and with the memory of him his stories awaken to new life. This is how an exuberant folk festival develops between a funeral celebration, a carnival stroll and a procession.
Like the “stone guest”, Giovanni himself stands like a monument on the pedestal of our story. Giovanni, this great mythical figure, is dead, and yet we know him and his activities, through which he broke all conventions. Images of women and men, role expectations, and the ambivalence of attraction, seduction, and assault are at the disposal of the viewer, of renegotiation. This is the fuel for our search, on which we probably meet more ourselves than him.
In GIOVANNI. A Passion STEGREIF.orchester and Neuköllner Oper work together for the first time, seeking different perspectives on Mozart’s opera. The boundary between instrumentalists and singers becomes blurred, together we embark on a journey “into music that weaves even further levels into history through our re-composition and improvisation,” as Juri de Marco, musical director of the STEGREIF.orchester, says.
Our GIOVANNI is less another production of the world-famous opera than an expedition into the alchemy of myth, the magic of Mozart’s music and the creativity of the 22 performers. “It would be wonderful if the audience approached this evening as curiously as an exhibition with unknown pictures, open eyes and above all an open heart. To find out what else this opera can be,” says director Ulrike Schwab (Armida, Wolfskinder, ist die Welt auch noch so schön).
In record time, the STEGREIF.orchester has become a leading protagonist for innovative concerts – a pool of 30 cross-genre musicians* who love the legacy of classical music as much as free improvisation, jazz and other styles. With their concert programs #freeSchubert, #freeBrahms, #freeBeethoven and others, the ensemble tours all over Germany as well as internationally.
Musical direction: Juri de Marco/Anna-Sophie Brüning | Direction: Ulrike Schwab | Arrangements: Malte Schiller, Alistair Duncan, Bertram Burkert, Anna-Sophie Brüning, Juri de Marco & members of the STEGREIF.orchestra | Répétiteur: Anna-Sophie Brüning | Stage Design, Costumes: Pia Dederichs and Marina Stefan |
Project Idea/Dramaturgy: Bernhard Glocksin
With: Hrund Ósk Árnadóttir, Daniel Arnaldos, Derya Atakan, Thomas Florio, Enrico Wenzel, Justus Wilcken, as well as Leon Albert, Anne-Sophie Bereuter, Franz Berlin, Julia Biłat, Anna-Sophie Brüning, Bertram Burkert, Sebastian Casper, Nikola Djurica, Konstantin Döben, Alistair Duncan, Nina Kazourian, Paul Lapp, Laura Lorx, Juri de Marco, Helena Montag, Jakob Petzl, Maria Reich, Antonio Rivero
This is a production of the Neuköllner Oper and the STEGREIF.orchester. It is supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Alfred-Töpfer-Stiftung, the Karl-Schlecht-Stiftung , the Radialsystem V as well as the Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur Niedersachsen.
