a chamber opera by Jos&eacute; Maria S&aacute;nchez-Verd&uacute; - Texts after Plato, Homer, St. Augustine, Ovid, Hugo of Saint Victor, Dante and the Revelation of John - Semperdepot (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, L&eacute;harg. 6)<br />
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In six separate historical, philosophical and literary scenes, composer Jos&eacute; Maria S&aacute;nchez-Verd&uacute; takes on the phenomena of writing, of memory, of forgetting and&mdash;ultimately&mdash;of knowledge itself.<br />
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He does so using an excerpt from the dialog Phaedrus by Plato, as well as reporting on an event that occurred during the Odyssey, quoting the Confessions by Augustine of Hippo, telling of the dying Adonis and also giving space to Hugo of Saint Victor. Ultimately, Dante&rsquo;s Divine Comedy leads the audience into Paradise. S&aacute;nchez-Verd&uacute; analyzes each of these scenes with surgical precision, emphasizing individual bits in order to arrive at the heart of the matter. A similar reduction to the essential takes place in the composer&rsquo;s music, the dynamic of which remains pianissimo throughout&mdash;thereby giving rise to a fragility that results in a constant air of tension pervading the sonic space. (Christoph Zauner)<br />
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Musical director: Walter Kob&eacute;ra<br />
Director: Christoph Zauner<br />
Stage design: J&ouml;rg Brombacher<br />
Video: Chris Ziegler<br />
Costume design: Mareile v. Stritzky<br />
Light design: Norbert Chmel<br />
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Thamos/Speaker: Adi Hirschal<br />
Sirene/Venus: Bibiana Nwobilo<br />
Ulysses/Monk: Oliver Ringelhahn<br />
Teuth/Dante: G&uuml;nther Haumer<br />
Dancer: Paul Lorenger<br />
With Manuela Leonhartsberger, Alexander Eschig, Yevgen Gembik und Gernot Heinrich<br />
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Amadeus Ensemble Wien<br />
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<a href="http://www.neueoperwien.at/index.php?lng=en">link to neue oper wien</a><br />
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