Awakening at the Third Ruhrtriennale
Presentation of artistic director Willy Decker’s first season
Today at the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum, artistic director Willy Decker presented the new programme and the new look of the Ruhrtriennale 2009-2011. The press conference focussed on the eagerly-awaited programme of his first season as artistic director. From 15 August to 11 October we will show over 80 performances of 30 productions in the impressive industrial spaces of Bochum, Duisburg, Essen and Gladbeck.
Urmomente – this is a key concept of the coming three years. The programme of the Ruhrtriennale 2009-2011 will be a dialogue with different spiritual traditions and an examination of their transcendental and artistic primal experiences.
This year attention will be centred on Jewish culture, in 2010 it will be Islamic culture and finally 2011, Buddhist culture – each of these guided by the notion of “Awakening”, “Migration” and “Arrival” respectively. The “Awakening” in this third Triennale cycle carries the subtitle Searching for the Word. This search constitutes a central aspect of Jewish tradition between the richness and questioning of language.
The 2009 season will open with Arnold Schönberg’s monumental twelve-tone epic Moses und Aron, directed by Willy Decker. No other work expresses and deals with the fundamental idea behind the programming of this coming Triennale cycle as comprehensively as this opera, with its main character Moses struggling to find the correct word for his encounter with the divine. There are 200 musicians in this production, which certainly makes it one of the most ambitious projects of the Ruhrtriennale ever.
Sing für mich, Tod is the title of Kreation, for which the renowned playwright Albert Ostermaier has written a play dealing with the enigmatic personality of the composer Claudie Vivier. The premiere, which reconstructs the ‘case of Vivier’, will be directed by David Herrmann.
Rupert Huber and the ChorWerk Ruhr set out on a musical search for the meaning of that particular fruit Tamar, of the date palm, viewed as the Tree of Life in Judaism as well as in the cultural realm of the ‘Sons of Abraham’.
Andrea Breth is back at the Ruhrtriennale after her huge success in 2005 with Nächte unter Tage. She is directing Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug with Sven-Eric Bechtolf in the lead role. In Teorema Ivo von Hove brings Pier Paolo Pasolini’s legendary film to the stage, and Johan Simons guests with his highly-praised production of Joseph Roth’s moving family saga Hiob.
As well as Vivo!, an evening with Anna Netrebko and Massimo Giordano, there are further outstanding concerts to be heard. Spanish musician and cultural researcher Jordi Savalli has conceived a musical event based around Jerusalem – Die Stadt der zwei Frieden, and Christian Muthspiel comes closer to that great wordsmith Ernst Jandl in his homage für und mit Ernst.
The new Century of Song curator, Marc Ribot, presents exclusive concerts with unique constellations of artists. Marianne Faithfull and Carla Bozulich will open the festival on 15 August, Iggy Pop and Tine Kindermann come together for the second concert, and the closing concert on 11 October will feature David Hidalgo and Cotito.
Working in collaboration with the Choreographisches Zentrum PACT Zollverein/Tanzlandschaft Ruhr, the festival presents two German premieres: Creation 2009:nieuwZwart by Wim Vandekeybus and his company Ultima Vez, and the duet Gustavia by and with Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot.
Many renowned actors will set out Auf die Suche nach dem Wort - searching for the word – in readings. Names include Edith Clever, Traugott Buhre, Elisabeth Orth, MartinWuttke, Anne Tismer and Wolfram Koch. Amos Oz, one of the greatest voices of Israeli literature, is also a guest of our literature series, alongside Mirjam Pressler, author of books for children and young people.
In Rede und Antwort, Willy Decker, conductor Michael Boder and other highly-respected guests will answer questions at a matinee of the opening production of Moses and Aron. In Fluch und Segen, Josef Joffe together with Christoph Schlingensief and other personalities will talk about the return of the religion.
On World Children’s Day, the Junge Triennale invites young people between the ages of 6 and 14 to an encounter with Jewish culture. Movement and fun are at the heart of the new Ruhrtriennale Musikakademie Klangsprünge. And finally for young music fans, there is a special matinee event for the premiere of Tamar.