Spielzeit 26.08. - 09.10.

Autland

Canon for an insatiable brain – A music theatre production by Beate Baron, Sergej Newski und Justyna Jaszczuk. Music by Johannes Ockeghem and Sergej Newski.

World premiere
Musical director
Director
Stage, Costumes
Composition
Lightning Designer
Dramaturgy
Sound director
Electronic Composition
Repetiteur
Premiere
2. October 2009
Introduction
2., 5., 6., 8., 9. October
The introduction begins 45 minutes prior to the start of the event

The Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem called the canon for 36 voices that he wrote circa 1450, ‘Deo gratias’, dedicating it to God’s grace. In this choral work a single, simple musical idea unfolds into an extraordinary and endless web of voices, irresistibly enveloping the listener.

Ockeghem’s masterpiece provides the basis and inspiration for Berlin composer Sergej Newski’s new work, Autland, which has been specially commissioned for the festival. From the principle of the canon, Newski develops a striking language system of his own. The idea of the everlasting unifies the fluid structure of both compositions. Here, the everlasting is not only figured as the spiritual connection between the human animal and the divine, but also as consolation on the way out of chaos.

Autland investigates the possibilities of dealing with the over-stimulation of the twenty-first century. What can the human cope with? How much chaos – and how much order? People with autism are forced to find their own specific ways to cope with the chaos of stimuli that they experience, often by structuring their daily life through strict personal rituals.

Autland explores these survival strategies of selective perception, attempting to render them available to others’ experience. Performed by singers, the production uses video, electronics, text and fragments of text in a rotating space.


Commissioned by the Ruhrtriennale.