Irrfahrten III: Rex Tremendus (Mozart 22)

Synopsis

The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres – music, theater, dance and video – are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the "odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination." (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom. At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, "La finta semplice" (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlömer, "tells of wanting something – even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, "Abendempfindung" (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, "Rex tremendus" presents a thought-provoking combination of two opera buffa fragments, "Lo sposo deluso" and "L'oca del Cairo," along with various unfinished pieces and fragments from Mozart's last work, the Requiem. It represents the artist's ultimate liberation from the restrictions and conventions of society, his farewell from the world, in total darkness… Schlömer on his Odysseys: "It is about the path the artist follows from his entrance into adult life to a period of artistic crisis, comparable to the midlife crisis we all go through, and on to a fragmentation and liberation from all interpretation of the artist's activity." Irrfahrten / Odysseys is one of the most illuminating productions of the Mozart 22 cycle, one that makes Mozart's genius shine in all of its facets.

Additional Info

• No: A045004500000
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Conductor: Michael Hofstetter
• Orchestra: Camerata Academica Salzburg
• Artists: Josef Wagner, Marisa Martins, Jeremy Ovenden, Matthias Klink, Silvia Moi, Anne Murray, Marianne Hamre, Wolfgang Götz
• Production year: 2006
• Run time: 01:54:00
• Director: Anais Spiro, Olivier Spiro / Joachim Schlömer
• Producers: UNITEL and BFMI in co-production with CLASSICA in cooperation with the Salzburg Festival