MEDIATHEK

The Lamento d’Arianna is one of the most famous lamentations of the Renaissance and ist he only part left of the opera Arianna by Claudio Monteverdi.
 Arianna saves Theseus from death by hands of her half-brother the Minotaur. The flee together and after their lovers night, Theseus leaves alone on a deserted island. 400 years Arianna is alone on this island waiting for his return.

Until Ariadne appears, a German Tourist, who comes to the island to take her own life, after losing her daughters life by hands of her violent husband. Then Ariane also appears,  refugee, almost drowned, washed up on this beach: who seeks ways to survive and to reach the mainland.

Three Arianna’s, with three different languages, three stories and three attitudes toward the lament, waiting for a boat which – perhaps – is coming, and fighting each other on this little island. ‚Who decides which Pain, which grief weighs heavier?’
 The Lamentation is an ancient art form of suffering. But can a song still express our process of dealing with trauma? What is the modern form oft he lamentation with which we grief?

Inspired by Monteverdi’s fragment and Ovid’s metaphors we intertwine three fates on one island in the Mediterranean Sea and in three different ways let the art of lamentation sound.