Louis Andriessen: De Materie

The Ruhrtriennale stages another exceptional masterwork of 20th century music theatre: De Materie (1984 – 88) for soloists, narrators, vocalists and large ensemble. Since its world premiere in Amsterdam in 1989, this first large-scale music theatre work by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has not been staged again. Like four voluminous chapters of a book or movements of a symphony, De Materie reflects the connections between matter, spirit and society in changing perspectives, e.g. the Dutch Declaration of Independence of 1581, a list from a book on shipbuilding published in 1690, a philosophical and scientific essay by David Gorlaeus dated 1651, the religious and erotic vision of a 13th century nun, a manifesto on the history of art, a private note about Peit Mondrian, a poem, a diary and a public speech by Marie Curie.

Andriessen’s composition attempts to merge the clash of these different perspectives into a kind of simultaneity within a large-scale musical and philosophical essay: the private, the political, physics and love, the history of humanity and the fate of individuals. His music does not assume an interpretive, expressive stance, creating space and architecture for the scene instead. The Kraftzentrale at the Landschaftspark Duisburg with its dimension offers the appropriate framework for the production of this masterwork, staged by Heiner Goebbels and his team.

Louis Andriessen, born in 1939, is one of Europe’s outstanding composers and a key figure on the contemporary Dutch art scene. His music, influenced by Stravinsky but open to many genres of popular music, is marked by the combination of forward propulsion, sparseness and clarity of material as well as characteristic sound inventions, often dominated by the sharpness of wind and brass instruments, pianos and electric guitars. Andriessen came to a broader audience’s attention through his opera works with Peter Greenaway, performed during the 1990s at the Opera of the Netherlands in Amsterdam. De Materie (1984 – 88) for soprano, tenor, 2 spokeswomen, 8 voices and large ensemble