Three norns are sitting at the foot of the world tree, spinning, knotting and severing the threads of life and thus determining the fates of individual mortals. They give life, fashion its course and bring it to an end. As do their mythological sister figures in other cultures, these Germanic goddesses of fate wield the power of life and death over human beings. In our secularised times death is now the No.1 taboo subject, and to temper the awfulness of it all, we make it our personal business to delay its arrival by cultivating “good” habits and living healthily. We make it our mission in life to fend off our own decay and arrest the ageing process.

In their work of musical theatre, ENDLICH, composer Asia Ahmetjanova and director Franziska Angerer reflect on our relationship to death and our response to the disintegration of our bodies. Through the medium of a group of elderly people, they force us to contemplate our own finiteness and old age with all that they imply. Poetic images give rise to a communal ritual blending mythology and performance, in which we seek to commit with gusto to this final consequence of life.

Spotlight
The Latvian-born composer and pianist Asia Ahmetjanova, today a Swiss resident, is one of the shooting stars of contemporary music. Her work explores the borderland between an experimental approach to musical material and the performativity of the human body. She sets great store on her performers bringing their own approaches to the work and her compositions take shape in close collaboration with the respective ensembles. She has already worked with ensembles such as the Basel Sinfonietta, Ensemble ö!, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart and Klangforum Wien. ENDLICH is her first commission for a music theatre and her first major collaboration with ensemble mosaik.

A co-production of the Munich Biennale and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Commissioned by the City of Munich for the Munich Biennale, with the generous support of pro helvetia and the Gisela Gronemeyer Foundation.

read less