MEDIATHEK

Falling Awake is about being critical towards the narrative which one is being served with.

The young daughter Monde finds out her life is controlled by the libretto, and so she decides to refuse to sing what the author wants her to. The libretto is an authoritarian protocol, because it dictates the character’s lives and fate, and nothing can be done to escape what is written.

Monde is madly in love with a Chinese boy who is singing on TV. Her daddy wants to save up money for her education but ends up spending it all on an old mechanical doll and a magic spinning wheel. His growing envy of the daughter's love for the Chinese boy, makes him justify his breach of trust, and he gradually exceeds her intimate boundaries.

The opera pictures a normative, in a family or in society, that gradually goes towards a more repressive direction, without anyone noticing.

To accomplish it: the opera manipulates the audience with melodic beauty, to the point where the audience find themselves singing along on a cruel exploitation of the young girl in the opera. This could be a reminder that we as citizens have a choice: and that is to stop singing when societies and politicians, or someone close to us goes too far. We are all the main characters in our own lives, and we are all audience to the lives of others, therefore we must be critical of the story we are part of.