Jamie Man “ZELLE: Wenn es dunkel wird”
Winter. High up in the mountains a woman is found alone in a hut. She is suspected of killing her children. The interrogator who interviews the woman never receives a reply and slowly begins to question herself. As it becomes more and more difficult to find what has bever been missing, time passes, the fog thickens and clarity dissipates.
For this new chamber opera ZELLE: Wenn es dunkel wird the British-Chinese composer and director Jamie Man 文珮玲 joins forces with the Swiss writer and librettist Peter Stamm. What binds them is the quest for what is real, for the truth beneath the reality. With influences including the dark surrealism of David Lynch, the narrative montage techniques of Jean-Luc Godard and Japanese Nō theatre, ZELLE: Wenn es dunkel wird explores the boundaries of what is visible, audible and knowable.
My second album “Yoru no Kotoba – Works for Noh voice and Violoncello” with Éric-Maria Couturier includes Jamie Man’s piece “Shi” which I commissioned in 2017.
Composition & direction, Jamie Man 文珮玲
Text, Peter Stamm
Nōh singer, Ryoko Aoki 青木 涼子
Countertenor, Steve Katona
Throat singer, Jackie Janssens
musical execution, Asko|Schönberg: electric guitar, Wiek Hijmans : percussion, Joey Marijs
electronics, Tatiana Rosa
light design & scenography, Ezra Veldhuis
costumes & inflatables, Fredrik Tjærandsen
dramaturgy, Tomas Serrien
sound designer, Brecht Beuselinck
light technician, Johannes Ringoot
production manager, Liesbet Termont
production, LOD muziektheater (BE)
coproduction, Theater- und Musikgesellschaft Zug (CH), deSingel Antwerp (BE), Asko|Schönberg (NL), Palau de les Arts Reine Sofia (ES), De Munt / La Monnaie Bruxelles (BE), Festival Aix-en-Provence (FR) & Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (PT)
© Kurt Van der Elst
2021/10/8-9 De Singel, Antwerpen, Belgium (World Premiere)
2021/10/20 Theater Casino Zug, Zug, Switzerland