"Universe, Incomplete" by Marthaler, Viebrock, Engel, Ubenauf & Ensemble at the Ruhrtriennale
Date
Friday, August 17, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Friday, August 24, 2018
Saturday, August 25, 2018
UNIVERSE, INCOMPLETE
Music by Charles Ives
“In case I don’t get to finishing this, somebody might like to try to work out the idea, and the sketch that I’ve already done would make more sense to anybody looking at it with this explanation.” (Charles Ives)
Inspired by these tempting words, the director Christoph Marthaler, the conductor Titus Engel and the stage designer Anna Viebrock develop their own highly individual perspective on an uncompleted project by the American composer Charles Ives (1875–1954): the Universe Symphony, which is one of the great utopian works of the 20th century. It is utopian because Charles Ives conceived it as a sonic event that would explode all classical forms of performance. It is also utopian because he never completed it – instead continually composing it anew. It is an unfinished jumble consisting of notes, sheets of sketches and pages of score.
Using only sections of the work that were actually composed, Christoph Marthaler, Titus Engel and Anna Viebrock create a scenic and musical environment in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum in which the instrumental soloists, together with the Bochumer Symphoniker and an ensemble made up of actors, dancers and singers, will look back from a distant future on our life today and fantasize a future out of the present. Other compositions by Charles Ives independent of the Universe Symphony will occupy the lacunae within the incomplete universe. The artistic team will investigate a musical Gesamtwerk, complementing it with a scenic and visual tension between contemporary experiences ranging from loss to invention.
Presse: Der Spiegel - http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/ruhrtriennale-christoph-marthaler-spielt-mit-den-fragmenten-von-charles-ives-a-1223825.html
Video Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3hY-qwcC5I
Composer Charles Ives
Director Christoph Marthaler
Musical direction Titus Engel
Stage design Anna Viebrock, Thilo Albers
Costume Design Anna Viebrock
Co-Regie Joachim Rathke
Co-Costume Charlotte Pistorius
Light Phoenix (Andreas Hofer)
Dramaturgy Malte Ubenauf
Arrangements Tobias Schwencke
With Joaquin Abella, Tora Augestad, Liliana Benini, Bérengère Bodin, Marc Bodnar, Magne-Håvard Brekke, Bendix Dethleffsen, Haizam Fathy, Altea Garrido, Ueli Jäggi, Jürg Kienberger, Antonio J. Navarro, Michael Wilhelmi, Thomas Wodianka, Clemes August Becker, Helmut Schmitt
Orchestra Bochumer Symphoniker, Rhetoric Project, Schlagquartett Köln
With Schlagzeugstudent*innen der Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln,