Brigitta Muntendorf: MELENCOLIA

Since its inception in 2002, the MaerzMusik festival, organised by the Berliner Festspiele, has been committed to presenting experimental, conceptual, interdisciplinary and media-art-oriented positions in the field of music, and questioning the boundaries of what contemporary music can be.

In 2025, the festival aims to push the boundaries of convention again under the motto Sonic Realities: Beyond Dualism, questioning the binary perception of the world and exploring the complex relationships between the familiar and the unknown, the historical and the contemporary, the natural and the artificial, and the human and the more-than-human. As an open space for coexistence and relationality, it promotes dialogue and connection through diverse voices and innovative soundscapes, inviting audiences to rethink their perspectives on listening and navigate soundscapes in new ways.

At the opening on March 21, 2025, MaerzMusik presents a work that significantly expands the concept of contemporary music theatre and redefines the format. Using cutting-edge technology in combination with complex composition, MELENCOLIA by Brigitta Muntendorf offers an immersive, thought-provoking experience in which existential themes are profoundly reflected. Inspired by the symbolic images of Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melencolia I, Muntendorf’s MELENCOLIA embarks on a search for meaning and for the liberating ‘melancholic mood’. The 14 musicians of Ensemble Modern and a choir consisting of six older singers from the opera choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden perform in a stage space that alternates between a showroom, TV studio and green screen studio. Two large-format screens show digital imagery, combined with live and pre-produced green screen recordings, while the audience is surrounded by an immersive 3D soundscape. The production also employs artificial intelligence and synthetically cloned voices, as well as digital guests, such as the Iranian-African ney virtuoso Saeid Shanbehzadeh. Before and after the performance, an app developed especially for MELENCOLIA will be used to interact with the audience in the foyer of the Berliner Festspiele. The app is both a digital overture and epilogue: objects and figures from MELENCOLIA can be placed in augmented realities by the audience. Since the objects are assigned different sound tracks, a composition for a six- to nine-part mobile phone choir is heard at the same time.

The performance of Brigitta Muntendorf’s MELENCOLIA is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
berlinerfestspiele.de/maerzmusik

Dates

March 21 & 22, 2025
Haus der Berliner Festspiele