Private Operas

For reason of vanity, convenience or mere carelessness, digitally linked netizens post information online which had been considered private only a few years ago. Private matters are now staged and publicised without a thought to protecting one’s privacy. At the same time, waves of digital information and public discourse are constantly permeating our private sphere.
Against this background, the “Musik der Jahrhunderte” in Stuttgart and the Munich “Biennale für neues Musiktheater” have commissioned five international teams of artists and composers, such as Clara lannotta, Kaj Duncan David and Frederik Neyrinck, to illuminate the concept of privacy in works of musical theatre. The teams have produced five experimental, multimedia “private operas”, which have been initially performed in selected apartments in Munich. The teams have then combined their individual projects for the ECLAT festival in 2019 for presentation on the big stage. The model for this project is based on the film “Dogville” (Lars von Trier), in which privacy, or more precisely, its dissolution is radically revealed in full view. The set design disposes of the boundary separating the audience from the stage, allowing the viewer to assume and reflect on various positions such as identification, voyeurism and distance. In addition to privacy, the private operas have also probed such notions as self-determination and freedom, and illuminated today’s complex relationship between the individual and society. The project’s cooperation and guest-performance partners were the Operadagen Rotterdam, the Spor Festival Aarhus and the project Connecting Spaces Hong Kong-Zürich. Additional guest performances took place in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Artistic director: Christine Fischer
Artists: Clara Iannotta, Kaj Duncan David, Truels Primdahl, Frederik Neyrinck (BE), Saskia Bladt and others

Additional Venues:

Munich: 2–10 Jun. 2018;
Aarhus: 10–12 May 2019;
Rotterdam: 20–26 May 2019