SPARK

music theater for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, 3 celli, piano and 4 percussionists

The Power of Noises – was the original title of the noise opera hellhörig, which premiered at the Munich Biennale 2008, and it aptly characterises what is at the centre of attention here: Carola Bauckholt does not take the usual route of expanding the sound of traditional instruments into the noisy, but the opposite: the noises are at the beginning, instruments and human voices enter into a relationship with them, imitate them and create irritating interactions.

The instruments include a zinc tub, metal lampshades, cans and boxes, balls, hoovers and balloons. The theatre of sound, space and light combine to form a dynamic, sensitive figure that is constantly changing. It needs no words, no concepts, no predefined sound grammar. There is no libretto. hellhörig tells a story, conveys experience and develops a spatial semantics beyond conventional language.

Duration: approx. 80 minutes