Nichts schien dafür in seiner Intensität und Intimität als Ausgangsmaterial geeigneter als die poetischen Seelenminiaturen, wie sie Claudio Monteverdi, Tarquino Merula, Carlo Milanuzzi und Barbara Strozzi zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts komponiert hatten. Damals revolutionierten sie mit der Entwicklung des Sologesangs zu einer einfachen Begleitung die Ordnung der Dinge auf dem Gebiet der Musik: Von nun an stand der Mensch mit seinen widersprüchlichen Gefühlen, seinen Leidenschaften und Sehnsüchten im Zentrum ihrer Kunst. Der fühlende Mensch sprach singend zum fühlenden Menschen. Wie nebenbei erfanden sie auf diesem Weg die neue Kunstform Oper. Die filmisch-musikalischen Momentaufnahmen des kollektiven wie individuellen Ausnahmezustandes im Frühsommer 2020 entstanden an erstarrten und vorübergehend leergefegten Orten des öffentlichen Lebens – dem Flughafen, der Staatsgalerie, dem verwaisten Opernhaus … Zusammen mit live gespielter Musik der Zeit Monteverdis erleben Sie diese Filme als Erinnerungen an eine außergewöhnliche Zeit. In einem filmisch-musikalischen Abend über das Alleinsein, die Sehnsucht nach Zweisamkeit und nach dem Miteinander in vielerlei Gemengelagen.

Mit Fahim Amir, Fanie Antonelou, Josefin Feiler, Franziska Finckh, Diana Haller, Goran Jurić, Paweł Konik, Mingjie Lei, Claudia Muschio, Petr Nekoranec, Jarrett Ott, Ilse Rucki, Helene Schneiderman, Christopher Sokolowski, Charles Sy, Johannes Vogt, Anette Wanner, Rachael Wilson, den Stuttgarter Kickers und dem Zollhund Spike

In Filmen von Matthew Anderson, Jeffrey Döring & Vangelis Anthimos, Tobias Dusche, Manuela Hartel, Lukas Rehm und Vincent Stefan

Musikalische Leitung Vlad Iftinca
Dramaturgie / Künstlerische Produktionsleitung Sabine Frank, Miron Hakenbeck, Julia Schmitt
Mit Laia Vallés und Elmar Gilbertsson
sowie Musiker*innen des Staatsorchesters Stuttgart

videostill from schlafenszeit © Manuela Hartel

TORTUROUSLY SWEET LONELINESS

Six films and music about feelings in a state of emergency

“Being alone for a long time makes people unjust,” says one of the characters of poet Ingeborg Bachmann in her island radio play Die Zikaden – and there is no question that being human includes togetherness with others, even if philosophers and poets have been exploring for centuries the value of solitude.
When everyone was suddenly and unexpectedly thrown back on themselves in the spring of 2020, when distance became a life-saving rule and places where social interaction was seen as a danger zone, when the public completely migrated to social media, the need for closeness and community perhaps became more aware than ever before. What felt like soothing loneliness for one, was simply involuntary and oppressive isolation for the other.
In the months when the opera had to keep its doors closed, we invited six video artists to develop films with individual singers from the ensemble about feelings in a state of emergency.
In its intensity and intimacy, nothing seemed more suitable as a starting material for this than the poetic miniatures of the soul such as those composed by Claudio Monteverdi, Tarquino Merula, Carlo Milanuzzi and Barbara Strozzi at the beginning of the 17th century. At that time, with the development of solo singing into a simple accompaniment, they revolutionized the order of things in the field of music: From now on, people with their contradicting feelings, passions and longings were at the center of their art. The feeling person spoke singing to the feeling person. As if by the way, they invented the new art form opera in this way. The cinematic-musical snapshots of the collective and individual state of emergency in early summer 2020 were made in frozen and temporarily empty places of public life – the airport, the state gallery, the orphaned opera house … Together with live music from Monteverdi’s time, you will experience these films as memories of one extraordinary time. In a filmic-musical evening about being alone, the longing for togetherness and for togetherness in many different ways.

With Fahim Amir, Fanie Antonelou, Josefin Feiler, Franziska Finckh, Diana Haller, Goran Jurić, Paweł Konik, Mingjie Lei, Claudia Muschio, Petr Nekoranec, Jarrett Ott, Ilse Rucki, Helene Schneiderman, Christopher Sokolowski, Charles Sy, Johannes Vogt, Anette Wanner, Rachael Wilson, the Stuttgarter Kickers and the customs dog Spike

In films by Matthew Anderson, Jeffrey Döring & Vangelis Anthimos, Tobias Dusch, Manuela Hartel, Lukas Rehm and Vincent Stefan

Musical director – Vlad Iftinca
Dramaturgy / artistic production management – Sabine Frank, Miron Hakenbeck, Julia Schmitt
With Laia Vallés and Elmar Gilbertsson
as well as musicians from the Stuttgart State Orchestra