Organization

Tenor (+1)

Linard Vrielink

Asle

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

Katharina Kammerloher

Ma Herdis

Midwife

Mezzo-soprano (+4)

Hanna Schwarz

Old Woman

Soprano (+2)

Sarah Defrise

Girl

Bass (+7)

Jan Martinik

Innkeeper

Bass-baritone (+4)

Tómas Tómasson

Man in Black

Baritone (+3)

Roman Trekel

Boatman

Tenor

Siyabonga Maqungo

Jeweler

Baritone (+4)

Arttu Kataja

Asleik

Stage director

Stage director (+4)

Kornél Mundruczó

Lighting designer

Felice Ross

Nicole Hyde

Double Vocal Trio S-M-A

Yingsi He

Soprano (+1)

Kristín Anna Guðmundsdóttir

Mezzo-soprano

Kirsten-Josefine Grützmacher

Mezzo-soprano (+3)

Alexandra von Roepke

Tenor (+3)

Andrés Moreno García

Six Fishermen (3 tenors, 2 baritones, 1 bass)

Tenor (+2)

Sotiris Charalampous

Florian Hoffmann

Carles Pachon

Bass-baritone (+3)

Benjamin Chamandy

Bass (+2)

Friedrich Hamel

Set designer

Set designer (+2)

Monika Pormale

Costume designer

Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera Berlin )

Orchestra

Staatskapelle Berlin

Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Victoria Randem

Alida

Samantha Britt

Conductor

Composer (+2)

Peter Eötvös

Gábor Káli

Heather Green

Baritone (+2)

Rory Green

Jaka Mihelač

Gonzalo Quinchahual

Taehan Kim

»When it’s out of necessity, anything is permissible, he says. Maybe you’re right, she says.« The place: Bergen, Norway. It’s cold. It’s raining. Asle and the heavily pregnant Alida wander around the coastal city. The young couple are turned away wherever they go. The likes of them are not welcome here. Each pause masks a further drift into a surreal psychological haze. Driven by desperation, they break into a stranger’s house. A series of mysterious encounters in which the past comes to life proves to be a disastrous race against time.

Adapting a short story of the same title by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, the Hungarian conductor-composer Peter Eötvös, one of the most influential figures in new music today, composed »Sleepless« on commission. In it, he and the librettist Mari Mezei interweave snapshots of the existential search for belonging, crime as a response to human indifference and the struggle with a sense of being out of place, generating a kind of suggestive, operatic stream of consciousness. The world premier also marks the Staatsoper Unter den Linden debut of the Hungarian film, theatre and opera director Kornél Mundruczó, well-known for cinematically realistic works that often address contemporary social themes.

English

Sleepless

Berlin

Germany