In Stuttgart, the earth trembles – theater

In the fall of 2009, Jossi Wieler saved the cultural politicians of the city and the state from an embarrassing situation by promising to become artistic director of the Stuttgart State Opera. . The search for a successor to injured Albrecht Puhlmann has become chaotic. Then this personality: the famous theater and opera director, who had previously rejected all executive positions, quickly appealed to Sylvain Cambreling as general musical director of the hat. The sober Wieler, who, as a director with two productions per season, was exclusively in Stuttgart, had carte blanche in cultural policy, although he did not succeed. The number of spectators, for example, sometimes left something to be desired in the ambitious game plan.

After seven years, the Swiss, who turned 67 in August, retired. His latest creation should also be understood by programming: contemporary musical theater, relevant for the present. Because Wieler is openly a utopian, who combines with his work the hope that "the world will get better", as he said in a recent interview. That is why a first on the booklet of the winner of the Georg-Bchner Prize, Marcel Beyer, entitled "Earthquake Trume" by the Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa. Sergio Morabito, Anna Viebrock for stage and costume, and Sylvain Cambreling at the orchestra conductor's office.

Two years ago, Hosokawa's "Stilles Meer" opera reflected the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster in 2011. In Stuttgart, the earth begins to shake. The source document for "Earthquake Trume" is Kleist's novel "The Chili Earthquake", which refers more to the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon than the 1647 earthquake in Santiago de Chile. In the echoound of the metaphorical libretto and music, the breathlessness of the undetermined occurrence appears as decelerated, placed in a dream realm. The fast-paced plot of Kleist becomes a radical narrative. In Kleist, the earthquake saves two lovers of death: Josephe is being executed because a child has sprung out of his forbidden love: Jeronimo is about to be jailed. Both escape from the city and meet again. At a thank you service they are discovered. The earthquake is also God's punishment for their immorality, so the fanatical priest. Both and accidentally the child of Fernando and Elvira, who is with them, are killed by the crowd. His own son Philipp survives and is adopted by Fernando and Elvire. In the opera, the event is set in a timeless present. In a frame story, the images are produced before the eyes of eight-year-old silent Philipp – fascinating present in the transformation by actress Sachiko Hara.

The stage of Anna Viebrock indicates stains. Deep holes open on the wide wooden deck in front of an unfinished house on the outside, behind which a concrete footbridge is raised, a street lamp projects a cold light: a soulless spatial landscape. Sometimes the house and the jetty go up and down like the invisible sea that brought death. This is the movement of Hosokawa's music, which in just under two hours without stopping knows only one meter, is recorded in intervals of four notes. The tempo remains based on the human pulse.

Hosokawa is a colorist, creating permanent sounds that blend into each other, a note swells quickly in brass, a blur reminiscent of Japanese ink drawings. This can be called meditative or monotonous. Drum strike attacks rarely create another state of aggregation. Voice processing is largely conventional. In the end, Elvire (Sophie Marilley) sings an old formula of musical lament, a line from the double line F: "The song of death above the cemetery". Esther Dierkes and Dominic Groe in love, Andr Morsch as Fernando and Josefin Feiler as Constance, the sister of Elvira, form a singing ensemble without brilliance, only the opera choir is scenic and powerful. Wieler and Morabito find decent pictures – you have to look closely to see the cap, which fell from Jeronimo's head like a kippah. That the quivering discord of humanity overcomes the desire of a heavenly life, can not make us forget the overwhelming silence of the end. Respectful, brief applause

Other Performances: July 6, 11, 13, 18 and 23