6 Days Opera 2007

The Venue in Düsseldorf

The cast

Composition: David Paul Graham (GB), Jean Paul Dessy (B)
Libretto core project: Iain Finlay Macleod (GB)
Libretto production Düsseldorf: Annette Bieker, Frank Schulz (D)
Stage direction: Frank Schulz (D)
Musical direction: Dominikus Burghardt (D)
Choreography: Guido Markowitz (D)
Costume and Stage design: Ján Kocman (SK)
in co-operation with the Academy of Performing Arts,
(Vysoká škola múzických umení, www.vsmu.sk)
Technical direction: mprojecta, Hans-Jürgen Müller (D)
Organisation: Rut Profe-Bracht (D), Multifusions GbR; Armin Leoni (D), littlebit
Public relations: Claudia Holthausen (D), Kontakte für Kultur

Choir: Ratinger Kammerchor (D)
Gaelic Singer: Michael Klevenhaus (D)
Percussion: Mathias Haus (D)
Piano: Mari Terada (JP)
Cello: Jacqueline Hamelink (NL)
Trombone: Andreas Roth / Jörn Wegmann (D)
Accordion: Alexander Pankov (RU)

Actress: Annette Bieker (D)
Actress: Antonia Schnauber (D)
Actor: Francois van Eeckhaute (B)
Actor: Michael Klevenhaus (D)
Dancers: Sabine Lindlar (D), Alice de Souza (BR), Eduardo Castro Neves (BR)
Climber: Daniel Raeck & Michael Gerritzen, RIC Freizeitanlagen (D)

We thank for providing the location.

We thank

www.klavierhaus-schroeder.de

for the grand piano.

The Subject

We tell the story of a people and a civilization that has disappeared.

We relate what the memory of the people of the Republic of St Kilda, a small group of Scottish islands lost in the North Atlantic, brings us.

The venue in Dusseldorf is right in the middle of the new Medienhafen (Media Port), which is the city's new business centre, on the banks of the Rhine. Two large modern office and commercial buildings at Zollhof 11-13 are connected to one another by a courtyard surrounded by glass. Balconies and terraces overlook the yard, a high bridge connects the two buildings. The complex stands for a modern, urban Dusseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The contrast couldn't be greater when the soaring cliffs of St. Kilda, the stormy island and the endless ocean are transported onto large screens into the urban architecture characteristic of a large European city of the 21st Century. The production emphazises the notion of "falling" - the fall of society, fall off cliffs, falling softly or landing hard. A balance-act with nature, an extreme and demanding life at the edge of human existence, a permanent weighing-up of survival-chances.

A choreography for choir, orchestra, actors and climbers, who turn the entire space into the stage.

First rehearsal; the choir in the air
Photos: Michael Gerritzen

Play video

		listening example 1: Baumeister.mp3
		listening example 2: gezackte_Arche.mp3
		listening example 3: Vogelschoepfer.mp3
		listening example 4: Schluss_mit_Ansage.mp3
		listening example 5: Schluss_zusammenhaengend.mp3

Photos: Andrè Loessel