THE THEATER OF rEpEtitions (2003)

 

Music theatre in three tales by Bernhard Lang
after texts by Marquis de Sade, William Burroughs, case records and eyewitness reports Composition: Bernhard Lang

Music director: Johannes Kalitzke
Director, Choreography, scenic Concept: Xavier Le Roy
Costumes: Christine Rebet
Light: Andreas Fuchs
Sounddesign: Peter Böhm
Dramaturgy: Wolfgang Reiter
Soloists: Anna Maria Pammer, Jenny Renate Wicke, Ekkehard Abele, David Cordier, Alfred Werner, Martin Wölfel Klangforum Wien
Les jeunes solistes under the direction of Daniel Navia and Rachid Safir
Dancers: Le Kwatt – Gaetan Bulourde, Herman Diephuis, Paul Gazzola, Frédéric Seguette
Coproduction: Opéra National de Paris and Steirischer Herbst Graz (Graz 2003 – Cultural Capital of Europe)

The title of Bernhard Lang’s first full-length music theatre, a quotation of Gilles Deleuze, not only heralds the constitutive principle of the composition, but also hints at the content of the production that evolves to be highly topical: a possible history of cruelty. The three tales take a look at European absolutism, reporting on the political dream of a free, human world that was to become a reality with the foundation of the USA and end with the return to the point of departure, to Europe, to times when the old continent is caught up again in its nightmares from which, once again, it had to be saved by its dream come true – America, that is about to become embroiled itself in the spiral of violence.