From 5. April 2025

Vespertine

The album as an opera

Björk / Himmelfahrt Scores | Arrangements by Roman Vinuesa | Directors: Kommando Himmelfahrt

new production of Theater Bonn

–In English with surtitles in German–

Conductor: Hermes Helfricht | Directors: Kommando Himmelfahrt [Thomas Fiedler, Jan Dvořák, Julia Warnemünde]

from age 16
Premiere 05.04.
Dates & Tickets

»Vespertine« is a term in biology referring to something relating to,
occurring or active in the evening, like, for example, a flower that
only in the evening opens out, or an animal that becomes active
after sunset. With her revolutionary VESPERTINE Björk in 2001
released the most mysterious, the most erotic, the most introverted album of her career. In that sense it is the diametrical opposite of an opera. But the diversity of its soundwaves, which are both acoustically and electronically produced, the sensuousness and directness of her voice, which addresses us, whispers, pleads with us, consoles and confesses – open up an extraterrestrial, epic dimension. And so came about the story which made it possible to perform this work in a theater: A woman research biologist and her doppelganger are the protagonists of this version of VESPERTINE. Her lab is a receptacle of experience, of memory, of longing and of attentive listening. The »two« are interested in the question of the origin of life and they themselves become mothers. Antique gods, who were involved in the creation of the world, take part in a dialogue with the »two of them«. The myth of creation handed down to us from Hesiod’s Theogony dating back to 750 B.C., becomes the basis for dealing with modern biology. On stage is a magical hypnotic  spectacle about human and divine universes, about the earth and nature, while we hear Björk’s music in all its fullness arranged for an opera orchestra and voices. 

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Cast

A Scientist  Nicole Wacker
Her Doppelganger  Ava Gesell
The Cloud Boy / Uranos  Kinder- u. Jugendchor des Theater Bonn (Termine)
Illuminated man / Kronos  Mark Morouse
Musikalische Leitung  Hermes Helfricht
Kostüme  Kathi Maurer
Video  Carl-John Hoffmann
Dramaturgie  Julia Warnemünde
Choreinstudierung  André Kellinghaus
Regieassistenz und Abendspielleitung  Anna Pies
Studienleitung  Igor Horvat
Korrepetition  Elia Tagliavia
Alexander Soloway
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