Admin

Opernhaus Zürich

Orchestra

The Orchester der Oper Zürich

Conductor

Jonathan Stockhammer

Stage director

Stage director (+2)

Kirill Serebrennikov

Set designer

Costume designer

Assistant Costume Designer

Costume designer (+2)

Tatiana Dolmatovskaya

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+3)

Franck Evin

Video

Ilya Shagalov

Choreographer

Choreographer (+1)

Evgeny Kulagin

Assistant Stage Director

Assistant Set Designer

Olga Pavluk

Chorusmaster

Conductor (+14)

Janko Kastelic

Dramaturge

Beate Breidenbach

Dramaturge (+1)

Daniil Orlov

Baritone (+3)

Bo Skovhus

Soprano

Susanne Elmark

Wife

Tenor (+1)

Matthew Newlin

Vova

Bass (+5)

Magnus Piontek

The Guard

Birger Radde

Marcel Proust

Opernhaus

Mask designer

Costume designer (+1)

Shalva Nikvashvili

Chorusmaster (+3)

Johannes Knecht

Ernst Raffelsberger

Chorus

Zurich Opera Chorus

Extras

Opernhaus Zürich Extras

Singer

Campbell Caspary

Idiot/Double

Leben mit einem Idioten
As punishment for a lack of compassion, the writer «Ich» (or «I») is supposed to take in an idiot at his home. Seems easy enough: «Ich» heads to the psychiatric ward to choose an idiot; he’s quite impressed with himself and his willingness to take in a «holy fool». The idiot seems to fit in well with the life of the writer and his wife. The only thing that doesn't work is speaking, apart from the occasional «Ech!», he doesn’t utter a single word. But when the idiot suddenly and without warning poops on the carpet one day, an uncontrollable spiral of violence, passion and anarchy begins. Alfred Schnittke’s opera Leben mit einem Idioten was premiered in Amsterdam in 1992. Wowa, the idiot in the title, was quickly understood to be a caricature of Lenin, the absurd and grotesque story a bitter parody of everyday life in the Soviet Union. However, the composer has stated that his opera is «by no means solely about communism» but far more about a general state in which «the irrational dominates the rational». And so stage director Kirill Serebrennikov will bring the piece to the stage as the dystopian, contemporary story of a married couple for whom the idiot catalyzes the breakdown of their already toxic relationship – bringing the darkest, most destructive human instincts to the surface, alongside a predisposition to aggression and violence. Schnittke’s music, with quotations from Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, the Communist International, a folk song about a birch tree, a tango from the 1930s, and further echoes of Chopin, Mahler, Shostakovich, and others, uses a polystylistic collage technique. All of this will unfold with the Philharmonia Zürich under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer. Susanne Elmark, Bo Skovhus, as well as the Chor der Oper Zürich – which appears on stage for the duration of the evening – will rise to the enormous challenges the presented by the score.

Life with an Idiot, Schnittke

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