MEDIATHEK

Vogelgespräche - Conference of the birds

Everybody’s life is a path that goes through different periods. The legend “Conference of the birds” by the Persian Attar tells about the journey of thirty birds. To show this pilgrimage, the performance place should give the possibility to the audience to walk through and then be seated in different points of the room.

Giving this possibility and also being a stage decoration by itself, we chose the botanical gardens in Graz for the world premiere in 2016. The work could also be performed in other significant settings, but always with the possibility for the audience and musicians to walk along and with at least two points with seats.

Based on a spoken text (that can always be translated in the local language) a narrator, two soloists, a vocal ensemble and 7 musicians (recorder, oboe, and string quintet) -three of them have performing roles- are guiding through the music. Attar tells about the inner journey of everybody describing the difficult and dangerous way of the birds through seven valleys to reach their king Simurgh (“thirty birds”). What they are finding in the end is their own identity.