Martina Gedeck describes in the role of Tanja in the prologue of Beat Furrer's VIOLETTER SCHNEE Pieter Bruegel's iconographic painting »Hunters in the Snow«, which depicts idyll and danger at the same time. In the opera, which will be premiered on January 13, 2019, the picture is a central element. Painting: "Hunters in the Snow", February, 1565, Pieter Bruegel the Elder / akg-images / Erich Lessing season 2018/19 | Opera (2019) | Music by Beat Furrer | Text by Händl Klaus based on a template by Wladimir Sorokin in the translation by Dorothea Trottenberg | Commissioned by the State Opera Unter den Linden Season 2018/19 | Opera (2019) | Music by Beat Furrer | Text by Händl Klaus based on a work by Vladimir Sorokin, translated by Dorothea Trottenberg | commissioned work of the Staatsooper Unter den Linden The world in a state of emergency. Five people are trapped in a ceaseless drift of snow. Time seems to stand still. Will this ever end? Jacques stays to himself in the middle of the group, he affirms the snowfall like the nothing to which he dedicates himself - by communicating with the snow, approving of his uncanny work. Peter and Silvia, on the other hand, are depressed, anxious, pessimistic. Jan and Natascha try to keep track of things, keep hoping and stay active in the belief in a new time. The ability to communicate is becoming increasingly difficult for everyone. What happens namelessly alienates everyone; they have no language for it. As a stranger appears and speaks - Tanja, who walks through the landscape as if in a picture - she initially triggers euphoria, followed by deep loneliness. Like a projection body it acts as a memory space; Jacques thinks he will meet his deceased wife in it - he touches the membrane between life and death. But nothing is stronger than the sun. The group experiences its extinction in the purple glow of the snow. The Swiss composer Beat Furrer - recently awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize - is considered one of the most important contemporary composers. In his numerous music theater works, the relationship between language and sound is particularly central. »Violetter Schnee« reflects the existential experiences of becoming alien and the loss of language in the face of an impending catastrophe and translates this into a suggestive musical-linguistic structure. The world is in a state of emergency. Five people are trapped in perpetual snowdrifts. Time appears to stand still.,
