Commission to Trond Reinholdtsen

Trond Reinholdtsen is composing the works The Hermeneuticist-Anthropologists and Ø-Ø for the Decoder Ensemble. In these interrelated music-theater works, the Hamburg ensemble encounters Trond Reinholdtsen’s The Norwegian Opera: first as a concert with scenographic elements at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, then as a further-developed music-theater production at the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In 2021, the musicians immersed themselves for the first time in the narrative cosmos of ø. The Festspielhaus Hellerau was the astonished witness to an episode of The Followers of ø, a blend of science fiction, verismo, communist propaganda, outdated existentialism, and autobiography. Norwegian composer Trond Reinholdtsen initially developed the ø epic as a video series and expanded it into full-length musical-theatrical events.

Related music-theater works—The Hermeneuticist-Anthropologists and ø-ø—are planned, in which the story will continue with numerous spin-offs and side plots. The Decoder Ensemble’s part will be based on a score for five musicians: clarinet, cello, electronic zither, piano, and percussion, supplemented by pre-recorded tape and video.

The commission to Trond Reinholdtsen for Decoder is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
decoder-ensemble.de

Dates

May 15, 2027
Elbphilharmonie, Kaistudios, Hamburg

October 29, 30, & 31, 2027
Tischlerei at the Deutsche Oper Berlin