The Day, The Cicada sang

 

staged concert with puppetry

From the fan mail after the premiere:

“The day the cicada sang makes you happy!”

[Mrs. A.]

“What a wonderfully beautiful performance and great music!”

[Mrs. L.]

“It was perfect. I sat there enchanted the whole evening and so did the others in the audience!”

[Ms. N.]

“The Day the Cicada Sang” allows music and scenery to interweave, creating a dense web of music, words and images. Not only is the music performed, but it itself becomes part of the story; it is its theme, at the same time lending the story its form. It is through being developed that music is brought to life, and here this happens through encounters and exchanges. A Venetian flautist and a Mexican viol player meet, guided by the cicada’s inspiration as the mythical embodiment of art. During their journey (on which they are accompanied by a mysterious, song-collecting flute player and his comical alter ego Mr. Koko), their musical traditions merge into something new. “The Day the Cicada Sang” gathers Venetian, Neapolitan, Spanish and Mexican music of the 17th and 18th centuries, combines virtuosic opera and concert repertoire with sacred music as well as traditional folk music from different regions and tells a unifying story of people and music.

Ensemble La Ninfea

Barbara Heindlmeier, recorder

Christian Heim, viol/recorder

Simon Linné, archlute/baroque guitar/cittern

Nadine Remmert, harpsichord

Jeannette Luft & Nicola Reinmöller, puppetry

Dorit Schleissing, dramaturgy and text

Philip Stemann, scenic arrangement 

Eva Swoboda, stage design

Eva Swoboda & Judith Mähler, puppet design

Tobias Gravenhorst, composition/arrangement

Project is supported by

Neustart Kultur, Beauftragte des Bundes für Kultur und Medien, Senator für Kultur Bremen, Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung, Waldemar Koch Stiftung, Kokpelli Bremen e.V.