In the opera installation “Isolde” by Munich composer and theatre maker Mathis Nitschke, the entrance hall of the Kunsthalle, Theatinerstrasse 8, becomes a grandstand and the pedestrian zone directly in front of it a performance space. “Isolde” is a play about a homeless woman who turns up on Theatinerstrasse among the well-dressed and happy shoppers. In the hopelessness of her existence, she transforms everything ordinary into art. Everything she hears becomes a world-encompassing song in which, like Wagner’s Isolde, she finds redemption through death and resurrection in love.
The world premiere of “Isolde” marks the end of a trilogy that began with “Viola” in Pasing in 2015 and “Katharina” at Münchner Freiheit in 2016. As with “Viola” and “Katharina”, the audience of “Isolde” is seated behind glass on the ground floor of the Kunsthalle, overlooking the pedestrian zone. Using structure-borne sound transducers, the windows become an acoustic membrane that connects the inside with the outside.
A project by
Mathis Nitschke
With
Thomas Jonigk (libretto), Martina Koppelstetter (Isolde), Klaus-Peter Werani (viola), Katharina Dobner (costume)
Mathis Nitschke, born in 1973 in Munich, lives and works in Munich.
