Far behind, on the horizon, the earth rises opulently and blue: The people in the waiting area of an airport have obviously been given a second chance, as utopian as this may be.
When they first filled the terminal with their choreography of busyness, a deluge had descended on them.
Human sacrifice, unleashed New Year's celebrations, the Orpheus myth, visions of doom: "Babylon", the third opera by composer Jörg Widmann, who was born in 1973, is about no less. Seven years later, at its world premiere in 2012 at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the performance of the revised second version began followed by the Berlin State Opera.
This is the basis of the new production, with which the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, as part of its May Festival, is the first medium-sized theater to put the work with its powerful choral passages and huge orchestra up for discussion.
It seems to have struck a chord: there was almost no seat left after the break, and the three hours of the premiere were followed by unbroken jubilation, which included the composer in attendance as well as his prominent librettist, the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk.
Permanently running videos
After the countertenor Philipp Mathmann, in the outsider role of a “scorpion man”, proclaimed the end of urban civilization at the beginning, it takes a while before the monologues are sung, which Widmann, who hardly disdains a music-historical style, has sung.
As in the early Baroque, the soul has its say as a personified figure, but despite Michelle Ryan's beguilingly pure soprano heights, it no longer reaches the Jewish exile Tammu, who turns to the priestess Inanna.
Their love, sung in a duet, becomes an almost catchy leitmotif, even if it all seems less lived through than set up.
This is ensured by Sloterdijk's libretto, which seldom gets to the point or even the punchline as clearly as with a "Silence over there, the Holy Scriptures are being created!".
But this is also ensured by Astrid Steiner's permanently running videos, which have a major influence on Daniela Kerck's direction and stage design, with their panoramas and swarms of birds, even with Babylon's tower, which is not explicitly mentioned in the opera itself.
At the same time, the projections allow many things to be dealt with in hints, so that the flood of images does not overwhelm everything like the waves of the Euphrates.
Sloterdijk and Widmann actually let Babylon's river have its say in person in such a way that it can't sound like heroin enough: The overflowing part of this game lies in Andrea Baker's appearance in a flowing dress (costumes:
In general, the classical half-circle of the Wiesbaden State Theater gets down to business quite loudly, sometimes up to the pain limit, occasionally even beyond.
The in-house choir, of course, achieves something extraordinary in the often overhanging parts of the people.
Albert Horne, choir director and from the coming season also coordinating musical director of the house, has the implementation of the score with its violent culmination points and its countless quotations and breaks in style, ranging up to Babylonian-Bajuwarian drinking song corruption, admirably concentrated and under control.
Musically, Widmann, who is an excellent clarinettist and quite familiar with finer nuances, is at least a little more concise in the scene in which Inanna descends into the underworld to rescue Tammuz.
Between clownesque falsetto and deep seriousness
The fact that she dominates in the embodiment of the soprano Sarah Traubel, who furiously measures her extreme heights over the tenor of Leonardo Ferrando (Tammu), is not solely the fault of the singers of the two central roles.
On the other hand, Widmann wrote the part of Death as if written on the black feathered body of Otto Katzameier, who oscillates so complexly between clownesque falsetto and deep seriousness, who had already taken part in the performance of the Berlin version and confidently put many a thing in Death's mouth. thoroughly precocious aphorism of the libretto.
One can chafe at Widmann's "Babylon" opera, not least at individual tonality windows that are close to the kitsch border, the passages that are to be celebrated like chorales, and also at the potential for exhaustion of the extensive crowd scenes.
But the level at which the Wiesbaden State Theater is putting Widmann's previous opus summum up for discussion as part of the May Festival deserves respect: apart from the acoustics of the Great House at one point or another, no one was overwhelmed.
Babylon at the Wiesbaden State Theater. Further performances on May 14th, June 1st and 11th and July 14th from 7.30 p.m. onwards, on June 19th from 6 p.m. onwards.