Melancholie des Widerstands

A small town is mired in lethargy. Functions of daily life have become unpredictable and the future holds little hope. But the arrival of a mysterious circus with bizarre figures promises distraction. The main attraction is a duke with three eyes. But it’s not about entertainment: He intends to destroy the people of the city...

The libretto by Guillaume Métayer is based on the eponymous 1989 novel by the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, who, as the narrator of the apocalypse, created a black parable about the contemporary situation in Eastern Europe. The French composer Marc-André Dalbavie is considered a representative of spectral music. His works shape the process of opening up contemporary music to different musical expressions. The importance of timbre, as well as the sensory experience at the heart of all his work, is also a characteristic feature of this piece. Hungarian director David Marton has developed a film opera for the premiere, in which the lines between reality and fiction blur.