Melencolia Brigitta Muntendorf - Ensemble Modern

A combination of reality and virtuality

What is melancholy? The answer will be different for everyone. Muntendorf is one of the most exciting composers of her generation. In Melencolia, performed by fourteen brilliant musicians from Ensemble Modern and a six-person choir, she presents seven tableaus with different answers to that question in an associative manner. These are inspired by the most diverse subjects, from Albrecht Dürer's enigmatic copperplate engraving Melencolia I from 1514 to now-extinct cities in the virtual world of Second Life and the infamous headbutt of footballer Zinedine Zidane.

Reality and virtuality are combined on stage in many ways. The scenes come to life in a colourful and island-like setting with live video projections, lavish costumes, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, cloned voices, and a 3D sound system. Where virtuoso modern music solos alternate with sentimental Japanese karaoke, the music cleverly navigates between irony, kitsch and cliché.

The wealth of ideas and impressions paradoxically invites us to think about the demystified world we live in, in an alienating, funny and whimsical performance, but above all, also profoundly melancholic.