consord: Staatstheater

In 1971, Mauricio Kagel radically questioned the institution of opera with Staatstheater by deconstructing theatrical and musical elements, thus revealing the inner structures of the medium of opera. The absurd, extravagant work was a call for self-liberation to an institution that seemed to be suffocating in its own hierarchies and traditions. Today, more than four decades after its premiere, the opera as an institution and art form is under pressure; it must prove its societal relevance in the face of multiple ecological and social crises.

Together with director Gineke Pranger, Consord explores the question of what possible futures and utopias of opera can be imagined today through Kagel’s Staatstheater. In this new production, the team explores strategies of co-existence and survival, drawing from the transformative and regenerative power of play and improvisation. A musical ecosystem emerges that acknowledges all human and non-human actors in their fragility and mutual interdependence.

Where Kagel's work still represented individual performers and a self-contained theatrical world, the musicians of Consord immerse themselves in a living network of things, bodies, and sounds, exploring what it means to be present in crisis, to stay engaged, and to establish a new approach to what already exists.

Ensemble consord

Direction: Gineke Pranger

Dance and choreographic collaboration: Josephine Kalies