RuhrTriennale
DeutschEnglish

The Depth of Space A football oratorio

World premiere
Music:
Moritz Eggert
Libretto:
Musical director:
Steven Sloane
 
With:
Claudia Barainsky, Thomas E. Bauer, Ursula Hesse von den Steinen, Corby Welch, Christoph Bantzer, Joachim Król, Peter Lohmeyer, Bochumer Symphoniker, Chor der RuhrTriennale
Opening night:
11. September
Start:
8:00 pm
Duration:
2 x 45 min., 1 interval, 1 epilogue
Performance:
18. September
Start:
8:00 pm
Duration:
2 x 45 min., 1 interval, 1 epilogue
Price:
Category A
45 €
Category B
35 €
Category C
25 €

Taking the Italian oratorio as their starting point, composer Moritz Eggert and librettist Michael Klaus have subjected the world of football to close scrutiny. Their work draws its material from childhood memories, battle songs, players' careers, famous managers' monologues, fugues of whistles, immortal quotes from players and coaches, medical diagnoses of injuries on the pitch as well as cherished poetic quotations – whether from the stands, the bench, the pitch or from interviews.

One principle unites them all – whether trainers, fans, goal-scorers or footballers' wives. It's all about getting the round object into the square hole! This first ever football oratorio is dedicated to the struggle for the top positions, to the great ambitions, medium-sized catastrophes and small memories surrounding the leather ball.

"Some school kids were kicking chestnuts around in the cemetery, near to the anonymous graves. I walked through their dust cloud, one hand in front of my glasses. I stood in front of my father's grave. Whenever I talk to him, I always look at the green sandstone slab as if it were his face. What I had wanted to do was to tell him about the last two days and have a good cry. As it turned out, we only talked about the Blues. After a quarter of an hour or so we had sorted out the team line-up for next Saturday. "See you!" On the way back, the cloud of dust was still rolling to and fro. At its edge, a very old woman with a stick found herself in a clear striking position which she couldn't resist. She tried to volley the chestnut flying towards her back to the kids, but missed and fell flat on her back, lying there motionless. We thought she was dead of course and ran away. (From Michael Klaus' work notes)

A work commissioned by the RuhrTriennale
The Depth of Space is part of the official artistic and cultural programme for the FIFA WM 2006 TM.