Organization

Singer

Bass

Steven Scheschareg

Oberlin

Stage director

Sophie Springer

Conductor

Mitsugu Hoshino

Costume designer

Bettina Breitenecker

Set designer

Thomas Stingl

Dramaturge

Markus Hänsel

Baritone

Ivan Ludlow

Lenz

Soprano

Sarah Gilford

Sopran 1

Tenor

Robert Künzli

Kaufmann

Veronika Schäfer

Sopran 2

Contralto

Sofia Pavone

Alt 1

Feride Büyükdenktas

Alt 2

Marian Pop

bass 1

Marcel Brunner

bass 2

Stadttheater Klagenfurt

Orchestra

Kärntner Sinfonieorchester

German

Jakob Lenz

Klagenfurt

Austria

Jakob Lenz Rihm

Public

Approved

What holds and sustains a person when his spirit escapes? When the yawning abyss of existence opens in the aimless drive of the life force? Is art a cure for psychological breakdown - or rather its catalyst?

Jakob Michael Lenz, who at a young age had shaped the style of the epoch of Sturm und Drang, developed schizophrenia himself at the age of 27. In 1778 the socially committed pastor Johann Friedrich Oberlin took the poet into his home and hoped, together with the philosopher Christoph Kaufmann, to be able to counter the attacks of Lenz's mental illness.

Oberlin described the increasing intellectual decline of the poet in his notes, which in 1835 sent the 22-year-old Georg Büchner to his novella Lenzwhich, almost 150 years later, inspired the composer Wolfgang Rihm, who was only 25 years old, to perform a chamber opera. The unstoppable pull of the emotional and spiritual disturbance and the musical power of expression pulls the listener straight into the poet's shattered psyche. The historically real figures Lenz, Oberlin and Kaufmann are joined by six voices - projections of the inner state of Lenz, his fears and dreams, but also voices from the environment. Reality and hallucination overlap indistinguishably; Lenz's psychological experience merges with the sound that surrounds him. For Lenz there is no way out of his disturbing stream of perception, all that remains for him is the straitjacket.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble