LEBEN MIT EINEM IDIOTEN

Opera
As punishment for a lack of compassion, the writer «Ich» (or «I») is supposed to take in an idiot at his home. Seems easy enough: «Ich» heads to the psychiatric ward to choose an idiot; he’s quite impressed with himself and his willingness to take in a «holy fool». The idiot seems to fit in well with the life of the writer and his wife. The only thing that doesn't work is speaking, apart from the occasional «Ech!», he doesn’t utter a single word. But when the idiot suddenly and without warning poops on the carpet one day, an uncontrollable spiral of violence, passion and anarchy begins. Alfred Schnittke’s opera Leben mit einem Idioten was premiered in Amsterdam in 1992. Wowa, the idiot in the title, was quickly understood to be a caricature of Lenin, the absurd and grotesque story a bitter parody of everyday life in the Soviet Union. However, the composer has stated that his opera is «by no means solely about communism» but far more about a general state in which «the irrational dominates the rational». And so stage director Kirill Serebrennikov will bring the piece to the stage as the dystopian, contemporary story of a married couple for whom the idiot catalyzes the breakdown of their already toxic relationship – bringing the darkest, most destructive human instincts to the surface, alongside a predisposition to aggression and violence. Schnittke’s music, with quotations from Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, the Communist International, a folk song about a birch tree, a tango from the 1930s, and further echoes of Chopin, Mahler, Shostakovich, and others, uses a polystylistic collage technique. All of this will unfold with the Philharmonia Zürich under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer. Susanne Elmark, Bo Skovhus, as well as the Chor der Oper Zürich – which appears on stage for the duration of the evening – will rise to the enormous challenges the presented by the score.


In German with German and English surtitles
AUTHORS
DIRECTION, SET DESIGN
MUSIC DIRECTION
Jo­nat­han Stock­ham­mer
COSTUME ASSISTANCE
Ta­ti­ana Dol­ma­tovs­ka­ya
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Franck Evin
VIDEO DESIGNER
Ilya Sha­galov
CHOREOGRAPHY
Ev­ge­ny Ku­lagin
LIBRETTO BY
Vik­tor Je­rofe­jew
ASSISTANT SET DESIGNER
Shal­va Nik­vash­vi­li
Ol­ga Pav­luk
CHORUS MASTER
Jan­ko Kas­te­lic
DRAMATURGY
Be­ate Bre­iden­bach
Da­ni­il Or­lov
OPERA BY
Alf­red Schnitt­ke
CAST
ICH
Bo Skov­hus
FRAU
Su­san­ne El­mark
IDIOT
Matt­hew New­lin
Camp­bell Cas­pa­ry
WÄRTER
Mag­nus Pi­on­tek
BURSCHE
Álva­ro Di­ana Sanc­hez
MARCEL PROUST
Bir­ger Rad­de
Phil­harmo­nia Zürich
Chor der Oper Zürich
Sta­tis­tenve­re­in am Opern­ha­us Zürich

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