Philippe Manoury: Kein Licht

Philippe Manoury: Kein Licht (2011/2012/2017)
CREATION - Thinkspiel for actors, singers, musicians and electronic music in real time, based on a text by Elfriede Jelinek. Commissioned by the Opéra Comique. World premiere on August 25, 2017 as part of the Ruhrtriennale, Germany.
Winner of the FEDORA Prize - Rolf Liebermann for Opera 2016
Musical direction: Julien Leroy
Director: Nicolas Stemann
Scenography: Katrin Nottrodt
Mixing and electronic performances: Philippe Manoury
Video: Claudia Lehmann
Costumes: Marysol del Castillo
Lights: Rainer Casper
Computer music director - IRCAM: Thomas Goepfer
IRCAM sound engineer: Julien Aléonard
Dramaturgy: Benjamin von Blomberg
Conductor: Christophe Manien
Assistant director: Christèle Ortu
Scenography assistant: Emilie Cognard
Translation: Ruth Orthmann
Soprano: Sarah Maria Sun
Mezzo: Olivia Vermeulen
Contralto: Christina Daletska
Baritone: Lionel Peintre
Actors: Caroline Peters / Niels Bormann
“Cheeky” dog: Karina Laproye
Choir of the National Theater in Zagreb
United Instruments of Lucilin
Synopsis
PART I - 2011
11.3.2011 - Following an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, several reactors at the Japanese nuclear power plant in Fukushima failed
melted, causing a nuclear disaster.
How can we talk about something that is worse than everything, worse than the worst? Maybe like this: a dog comes on stage howling to death in front of the spectators. Or like this: two players, A and B (are they musicians, elementary particles, or are they, like us all, two consumers of energy?) must imagine that they are not standing before or after but in the middle of the catastrophe. They don't succeed. Until the end, in their soul and conscience, they deny the facts: “We are here and we are playing, nothing else. We are second fiddles, we only accompany, or something like that because, in any case, we have never been and we are not there. » The dead try in vain to make their voices heard. In a frenzied finale, the two players A and B decide to continue as before, with a great expenditure of energy and a lot of waste: “How can we imagine an end to nuclear power? Impossible !
We will continue to radiate. We will no longer be ourselves but radiation. " What do you think ?
PART II - 2012
Entire areas have become uninhabitable. Only a few residents remained - and the animals. A grieving woman feeds the dogs who are
all he has left.
A and B appear and deny any responsibility. We now find ourselves with them on the other side of the world and we are considering - too late - abandoning nuclear power. “Why not before? “No idea,” they say. They get back into their diesel car and leave. “No word about the truth has been spoken” vituperates a grieving woman, outraged by so much hypocrisy. His complaint is lost in the distance. On the other hand, the subject of nuclear energy is solemnly buried and a cell phone is plugged into a power outlet. No questioning. Why then, when the end of the world buried under masses of water is good for a selfie? It's only when everything collapses and the electricity goes out that it becomes clear: we can't continue like this. But this conclusion does not hold for long and quickly turns into a truism.
PART III - 2017
The ghosts of the dead transport us to 2017. Have we learned anything? Have things finally improved? We see it: a king tweets that global warming is an invention of the Chinese - or was it the North Koreans? In short: “We have missiles - we can deploy them.”
The atom no longer welcomes us only in the form of nuclear power plants, but also as a weapon of war, ready to serve. Good moral sense has not been able to cope with technical knowledge. “Man of the earth, be careful” sings the bereaved woman, before also disappearing among the ghosts of the victims. A and B take refuge in virtual fantasies: they desert the earth and fly to the planet Mars. The human concert is definitely over, the party is over, the musicians are the last to leave the stage. All that remains is the howling of the dog.

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Penso ser inadequado submeter um cão ao esforço vocal apenas para deleite artístico humano.