GREAT OPEN EYES
Manuel Zwerger - Carolyn Amann - Carmen C. Kruse
Civic Opera Creations & Theater Münster
January 2020 - May 2024
Men are heartless. They take no thought
- whether for the living nor for the death.
Life goes its own way - just as if nothing had happened.
And nothing has happened, either. Only to us two.
Grief connects us all, but something that we feel, perceive and experience very individually. With an adaptation of Ibsen's Little Eyolf and supported by community interviews, the new music theater Great open eyes opens a dialogue around grief and child loss.
Through the fictional characters of the Allmers, Rita and Alfred, whose son Eyolf drowned, it examines the different phases of mourning in a non-linear narrative. Eyolf's last encounter with the Rat-wife, who, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, frees rats from the hatred of residents, becomes a reflective metaphor for the parents' unraveling grief process. Their emotional worlds surface in an episodic structure around this dream vision. These worlds reveal guilt, helplessness, anger, denial, premonitions, and repressed emotions. For Great Open Eyes, a concentric space was created, inspired by the haunting eyes of Little Eyolf. In the center of its iris is an earth-filled pool, from which Eyolf and the Rat-Wife emerge and descend. Surrounding the stage are orchestra and audience. They build an integrated part of the scene and soundscape with optical and acoustic impulses that the parents cannot escape. On this narrow path and three catwalks into nowhere, Rita and Alfred work through their grief, self-reflection, and external expectations. A mirror hovers above their heads, distortedly merging all levels.
Great Open Eyes seeks to be developed and performed in collaboration with communities and their opera institutions. The process begins with interviewing locals through partnerships with churches, support groups, and psychotherapists. Then collective experiences are drawn from the recorded interviews. The focus here is on similarities in grief processing and perceptions, but not on reproducing or recognizing individual fates on stage.
Conceived and directed by Carmen C. Kruse, composed by Manuel Zwerger, libretto by Carolyn Amann.
Produced and commissioned by Civic Opera Creations (COCREATIONS) and Theater Münster.
Creative Team
Manuel Zwerger
Composer
Carolyn Amann
Librettist
Carmen C. Kruse
Stage Director
Valentin Mattka
Set Designer
Ulf Brauner
Costume Designer
Manuel Zwerger
The South Tyrolean composer studied composition at the conservatory in Innsbruck and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. In his work, he strives for interdisciplinary cooperation and exploration of sound, scene, movement, and stage. His compositions have been performed among others by the Ensemble Modern, Windkraft – Kapelle für Neue Musik, Ensemble chromoson, Ensemble airborne extended, Tiroler Kammerorchester Innstrumenti, and the Streichorchester Sonarkraft in Argentina, Russia, Turkey, and Europe. Zwerger received composition scholarships from the Richard-Wagner-Verband Wien (2015), Akademie Musiktheater heute (2017-19), the city of Innsbruck (Hilde-Zach-Kompositionsförderstipendium, 2018), and the Bundeskanzleramt Austria (Start-Stipendium 2020). Together with director Carmen C. Kruse, he won the 2019 CROSS Award in Italy and was a finalist of the Haydn Foundations OPER.A 20.21 Competition (2019). www.manuelzwerger.com
Carolyn Aman
Carolyn Amann is a playwright, poet and dramaturge from Hohenems, Austria. She studied theatre, film and media studies at the University of Vienna. Since 2014, Amann creates work around "gender, class and race" themes in stage and spoken works. Most recently, her work on the subject of refugees and statelessness, "Leinen Los!", was seen at Dschungel Vienna and her epilogue to Kleist's "Der Zerbrochne Krug" at the Landestheater Linz was nominated for the "Bundesländer"-Nestroy 2021. She published her short prose and prose in the literary journals Lichtungen, Mosaik, die Anstalten and Miroment, among others. Amann has received numerous grants from the Vorarlberg Literature Prize and the Bundeskanzleramt, as well as the Sttartstipendium for Literature 2020. www.carolynamann.at
Carmen C. Kruse
Carmen C. Kruse is an award-winning opera stage director and new works collaborator. As the Artistic Director of Vienna-based Civic Opera Creations, she is actively invested in new opera. Her work is shaped by an in-depth, psychological exploration of broad societal themes and their effects on individuals, and fed by first-hand accounts and community input. Kruse creates immersive, live experiences that change the relationship between orchestra and dramatic action, and present archaic worlds that inspire and empower. Kruse gave her directing debut with Cavalli's L’Egisto at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival in 2017. Further productions brought her to the Osterfestspielen Baden-Baden, Staatstheater Mainz, Staatsoper Stuttgart, and the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt. She is an Alumna of the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Directing Scholarship, 2017-19), L’Académie du Festival d’Aix (2020), and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab (2018). www.cckruse.com
Valentin Mattka
German native Valentin Mattka is a freelance scenographer for film and opera. He studied Set and Costume Design at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee with Prof. Peter Schubert. Mattka received a design scholarship from Akademie Musiktheater heute (2016-18) and was a finalist of the Haydn Foundations OPER.A 20.21 Competition (2019) with Zwerger and Kruse. Valentin Mattka recently created sets for Korngolds Die Tote Stadt (Director: Luise Kautz) at Opernhaus Kiel, and the world premiere of Cheng-Syrse-Tangians Die Nacht der Seeigel, together with designers R. Stange and T. Ullrich, at Opera Stabile of the Hamburgische Staatsoper. In 2020, he designs the sets for La Juive (Director: Luise Kautz) at Opernhaus Kiel and Pierrot Lunaire with director Barrie Kosky at Komische Oper Berlin. www.valentinmattka.com
Ulf Brauner
Born in Berlin, Ulf Brauner studied Fashion Design at the Universität der Künste and Tama Art University in Tokio. In 2013, Brauner won the Umbria Cashmere District Award in Perugia, Italy. 2015 the first price of the European Fashion Awards followed for his Collection auf und davon nach. He designed his first costumes in 2017 in collaboration with Josa Marx for Medea (Director: Lucia Bihler) at Theater Lübeck. Costume designs for Das Leben des Vernon Subutex and Café Populaire (Director: Anja Schoenwald) followed at Schauspiel Stuttgart. In 2020, his work was showcased in Trauer ist das Ding mit Federn and Dekalog (Director: Christopher Rüping) at Schauspielhaus Zürich.
ORPHEUS MAGAZIN
No. 4, 2023, S. 78
"Im Theater Münster kann man erleben, wie aus Gesprächen mit trauernden Menschen ein bewegender Opernabend werden kann, und das mit literarisch anspruchsvollem Libretto und niveauvoller Musik. (...) Was sich an psychischer Trauer-Dynamik zwischen dem Elternpaar entwickelt, ist Literatur gewordene Realität der Jetztzeit. Robyn Allegra Parton und Johan Hyunbong Choi spielen sich auf überwältigend bewegende Weise durch ihre unterschiedlichen Art zu trauern. Immer wieder entsteht erschütternde Emotionalität, die das Paar facettenreich zu gestalten weiß. (...) Umringt wird diese Szene vom Orchester, das mit fein gebauten Klangflächen, rhythmischen Impulsen, motivischen Akzenten und hie und da auch Geräuschen dem Ganzen die emotionale Basis gibt. Am Ende, nach ergriffenem Schweigen, gibt es lang anhaltenden Beifall für einen in der Tat innovativen Opernabend." - Claus-Ulrich Heinke
Impressions from the performances
Impressions from the concept development
For more information, please contact contact@cocreations.eu