Enno Poppe tells the story of the stranded Robinson differently than usual. In addition to the almost obsessive work of setting up home on the island, the associated noise, coming to terms with silence and speechlessness, the island becomes populated with more and more people after Friday’s arrival, flooding it with new sounds and a babble of voices. Robinson longs to return to his own echo chambers. And so he tells the story backwards.
He is acoustically supported not only by the drummers and keyboardists, whose playing styles allow stage action and sound to merge seamlessly. The two actors of Robinson and Freitag use the entire spectrum of vocal expression to make the island appear bodily before our ears.
Commissioned by the City of Munich | Co-production of the Munich Biennale and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in collaboration with the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (ZKM), Karlsruhe
Enno Poppe, composition
Marcel Bayer, libretto
Anna Viebrock, director, décor and costumes
Prof. Wolfgang Heiniger, programming
ZKM, sounddirection
Graham F. Valentine, actor and singer
Omar Ebrahim, actor and singer
Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart
Ensemble Musikfabrik
Michael Wendeberg, conductor