MEDIATHEK

“Musik” is a work of musical theatre by the young and already noted composer Michael Langemann. The original text was created by the 21 year old author, Helene Hegemann based on the play of the same name by Frank Wedekind (1864 - 1918). The play centres on the young Klara, a student of singing. Her professor predicts a glittering career as a wagnerian opera singer if she drops out of the Conservatoire and instead takes private lessons with him. The young woman follows the advice of her married teacher and consents to being drawn into an affair with him. She becomes pregnant and has an abortion at his insistence. This sets her on a path upon which every development leads, step by step, to her destruction.

Why then ‘Musik’? At first even the idea of making an opera out of Wedekind’s play is a formidable one. The project focusses on the story of the main characters which is above and beyond the main objective of the Experimental Musical Theatre Fund: To explain the importance of music. For this reason, this appears to be a team to back: Michael Langemann, the young composer who's work does not submit to fashion - as demonstrated by his existing body of work which integrates elements of pop-music to create a unique musical language. Helene Hegemann the librettist and director who focuses her sharp and relentlessly incisive eye on the present, and in particular on the younger generation, and the aspirations evidenced in their lyrics as well as in theatre and film. Jamie Oritz who brings the conceptual grasp and the musical and literary background needed for such a complex project. The experienced visual team consists of production designer Janina Audick and of video artist Kathrin Krottenthaler. (Stephanie Graeve for the Jury / Fonds Experimentelles Musiktheater 2012)

With his production ‘Musik’ that consists of both vocal parts and speaking parts, the classically trained composer and conductor Michael Langemann weaves influences and allusions from pop-culture into the work and integrates them with a large orchestra. His music invokes a variety of musical forms and deals freely with allusions to a wide variety of musical styles from different eras. Richard Wagner quotes can seamlessly transition into R’n’B , an inspired baroque lament can be followed by a crazy aria interspersed with dance-floor rhythms.