Klaus Lederer & Die Staatsstreicher poach in Wagner matters
First of all, a cultural politician with a doctorate in law discusses whether operas with their violent, sexist and offensive content can still be performed at all - a highly topical question in view of the debates about renaming them.
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Die Staatsstreicher
Klaus Lederer
The basis is the treatise by a certain Mr. von Pidde, who is concerned with "nothing less than the ruthless exposure of the music dramas of Richard Wagner in particular as a series of orchestrally embellished criminal offenses." In his astute legal analysis, the technically experienced author comes to the conclusion that in view of such immorality "opera is a dying genre."
And then there are the "coup d'état." Their musical home, the Berlin Lindenoper, has been nicknamed "Winter Bayreuth" for the Wagner cultivating of the last century and a half.
In 2002, for example, Barenboim's Staatskapelle performed all 10 Wagner operas in just 14 days. The counter-reaction to this oversaturation was not long in coming: an ensemble was founded that dedicated itself to the radical re-evaluation of the works - (not only) Wagner - in terms of both content and themes and in terms of music and parody.
Mainly with arrangements for viola(!) quartet, created between Bayreuth and Berlin. The Flying Dutchman sings of sailor love, the great Rosenkavalier mutates into a small cactus, the Nibelungs hold a guard parade and Siegfried gets his magic dragon.
These are short versions of operas that have gone astray in terms of entertainment music, and which are combined in the program "Comedian Violists in the Matter of Wagner" with tongue-in-cheek legal discussions of the criminal offenses committed by the Ring characters.
From adultery, kidnapping, incest, cruelty to animals and arson to murder and manslaughter, gods, humans, dwarves and giants commit violations of the law to a degree that far exceeds the direst fears.
With a love of detail, the question of the “Walküre” is asked whether Hunding’s ash tree is an inseparable part of the apartment’s furnishings, because this is the only way to prove whether the drawn sword is Siegmund’s rightful property. And the author regretfully notes that the incestuous adultery that immediately follows is not punishable, the execution of which Wagner spared the audience – at least! – with the stage direction “The curtain falls quickly”.
This format appeals not only to Wagnerians, but also to fans of musical cabaret and hits of the 1920s. It requires neither legal nor musical training.
The Staatsstreicher, who have existed in real life for almost two decades, have worked together with well-known reciters from the actor Thomas Thieme to the politician Gregor Gysi.
In addition to the State Opera, the group has also performed at the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Humboldt University, the Dresden Music Festival and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Staatsstreicher have already performed in Wroclaw with Klaus Lederer.
(PROGRAM IN GERMAN)
Additional information
Participating artists
Klaus Lederer
Volker Sprenger (Die Staatsstreicher)
Katrin Schneider (Die Staatsstreicher)
Wolfgang Hinzpeter (Die Staatsstreicher)
Boris Bardenhagen (Die Staatsstreicher)
Dates
October 2024
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