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November 22 - 24, 2024: Events, concerts, exhibitions and more things to do for your perfect weekend in Berlin. more
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MELENCOLIA
Date details
- Date Saturday, 22/March/2025 17:00 (1 more date)
- Venue Haus der Berliner Festspiele - Große Bühne
- Address Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf
Public transportation
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Underground
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U Spichernstr.
- U9
- U3
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U Uhlandstr.
- U1
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U Kurfürstendamm
- U9
- U1
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U Augsburger Str.
- U3
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U Hohenzollernplatz
- U3
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U Güntzelstr.
- U9
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U Spichernstr.
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Bus
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Friedrich-Hollaender-Platz
- 204
- N3
- N9
- N7X
- 249
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Lietzenburger Str./Uhlandstr.
- 249
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U Spichernstr.
- 204
- N3
- N9
- N7X
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Pariser Str.
- 249
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U Uhlandstr.
- 109
- 110
- M19
- M29
- N10
- X10
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U Kurfürstendamm
- 204
- 249
- N3
- N9
- N7X
- 109
- 110
- M19
- M29
- N10
- X10
- M46
- N1
- N2
- N26
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Berlin, Bleibtreustr.
- 109
- 110
- M19
- M29
- N10
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U Hohenzollernplatz
- N3
- 249
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U Güntzelstr.
- N9
- N7X
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Theater des Westens
- M49
- X34
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Bamberger Str.
- 204
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Uhlandstr./Kantstr.
- M49
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Friedrich-Hollaender-Platz
Part of:
MELENCOLIA
MaerzMusik 2025
MELENCOLIA – Musiker*innen des Ensemble Modern auf der Bühne. Im Hintergrund eine Videoprojektion, die stark vergrößert einen Flöte spielenden Musiker zeigt.
© Anja Koehler / Bregenzer Festspiele
MaerzMusik 2025 opens with “MELENCOLIA”, an experimental music theatre show by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck. In immersive soundscapes, musicians from Ensemble Modern and the Apollo Choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden invite the audience to explore the creative and transformative power of melancholic worlds.
Taking Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “Melencolia I” as its starting point, numerous figures and themes are presented on the stage of “MELENCOLIA” and set in relation to one another: Muntendorf/Lobeck go in search of the liberating melancholic mood in a series of seven tableaux, encountering football stadiums and digital cemeteries of virtual “Second Life” worlds, Austrian folk songs, virtuoso instrumental music and Japanese karaoke, AI voice clones and digital guests including the Iranian ney-anbān virtuoso Saeid Shanbehzadeh.
Tailored for 14 musicians of the Ensemble Modern and accompanied by singers from the Apollo Choir, this work addresses the historical complexities of melancholy – perceived variously as an illness, as a way of overcoming earthly suffering or as the sister of genius. The puzzling polyhedron in Albrecht Dürer’s engraving has become a symbol for these contradictions amid the human desire for salvation.
“MELENCOLIA” combines classical performance with cutting-edge approaches at the intersection of art and technology. Set in a post-digital environment, this work of music theatre weaves together a fascinating tapestry of sound and visuals, a hybrid space between showroom and green-screen studio, between real and virtual worlds. “MELENCOLIA” transcends the superficially spectacular to prompt introspection among the audience and, beyond this, to challenge the indifference of the universe.
The work has already been recognised for its innovation by becoming the first music theatre to receive an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica. Following a guest performance at the HOLLAND Festival, “MELENCOLIA” will celebrate its German premiere at MaerzMusik 2025 in cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
Cast
Brigitta Muntendorf – Composition, Artistic Direction, Staging, Dramaturgy
Moritz Lobeck – Staging, Dramaturgy
Veronika Simmering – Visual Worlds
Sita Messer – Stage, Costume
Begoña Garcia Navas – Lighting Design
Matthias Rieker – Light
Floris Dijkers – Lighting Operator
David Bräuer – Technical Direction
Warped Type, (Andreas Huck, Roland Nebe) – Live Video
Felix Dreher – Sound Direction
Lukas Nowok – Audio Programming, Live Electronics
Banu Sahin – 3D Audio
Volker Bernhard – Sound Engineering
Saeid Shanbehzadeh – ney-anbān (Virtual Soloist)
Members of the Apollo Choir of Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Ensemble Modern
Dietmar Wiesner – flute, piccolo flute, bass flute
Christian Hommel – oboe
Jaan Bossier – clarinet
Thomas Mittler – horn
Sava Stoianov – trumpet
Uwe Dierksen – trombone
Ueli Wiget – piano, sampler
David Haller – percussion
Rainer Römer – percussion
Jagdish Mistry – violin
Giorgos Panagiotidis – violin
Megumi Kasakawa – viola
Eva Böcker – cello
Paul Cannon – double bass, electric bass
With texts by Robert Burton, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and others
In cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Commissioned by Bregenzer Festspiele and Ensemble Modern
Taking Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “Melencolia I” as its starting point, numerous figures and themes are presented on the stage of “MELENCOLIA” and set in relation to one another: Muntendorf/Lobeck go in search of the liberating melancholic mood in a series of seven tableaux, encountering football stadiums and digital cemeteries of virtual “Second Life” worlds, Austrian folk songs, virtuoso instrumental music and Japanese karaoke, AI voice clones and digital guests including the Iranian ney-anbān virtuoso Saeid Shanbehzadeh.
Tailored for 14 musicians of the Ensemble Modern and accompanied by singers from the Apollo Choir, this work addresses the historical complexities of melancholy – perceived variously as an illness, as a way of overcoming earthly suffering or as the sister of genius. The puzzling polyhedron in Albrecht Dürer’s engraving has become a symbol for these contradictions amid the human desire for salvation.
“MELENCOLIA” combines classical performance with cutting-edge approaches at the intersection of art and technology. Set in a post-digital environment, this work of music theatre weaves together a fascinating tapestry of sound and visuals, a hybrid space between showroom and green-screen studio, between real and virtual worlds. “MELENCOLIA” transcends the superficially spectacular to prompt introspection among the audience and, beyond this, to challenge the indifference of the universe.
The work has already been recognised for its innovation by becoming the first music theatre to receive an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica. Following a guest performance at the HOLLAND Festival, “MELENCOLIA” will celebrate its German premiere at MaerzMusik 2025 in cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
Cast
Brigitta Muntendorf – Composition, Artistic Direction, Staging, Dramaturgy
Moritz Lobeck – Staging, Dramaturgy
Veronika Simmering – Visual Worlds
Sita Messer – Stage, Costume
Begoña Garcia Navas – Lighting Design
Matthias Rieker – Light
Floris Dijkers – Lighting Operator
David Bräuer – Technical Direction
Warped Type, (Andreas Huck, Roland Nebe) – Live Video
Felix Dreher – Sound Direction
Lukas Nowok – Audio Programming, Live Electronics
Banu Sahin – 3D Audio
Volker Bernhard – Sound Engineering
Saeid Shanbehzadeh – ney-anbān (Virtual Soloist)
Members of the Apollo Choir of Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Ensemble Modern
Dietmar Wiesner – flute, piccolo flute, bass flute
Christian Hommel – oboe
Jaan Bossier – clarinet
Thomas Mittler – horn
Sava Stoianov – trumpet
Uwe Dierksen – trombone
Ueli Wiget – piano, sampler
David Haller – percussion
Rainer Römer – percussion
Jagdish Mistry – violin
Giorgos Panagiotidis – violin
Megumi Kasakawa – viola
Eva Böcker – cello
Paul Cannon – double bass, electric bass
With texts by Robert Burton, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and others
In cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Commissioned by Bregenzer Festspiele and Ensemble Modern
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