SYNART

SYNOPSIS

Branimir feels his homeland Bulgaria threatened by the uncontrolled influx of strangers in search for a safer and better life. Since both the local authorities and the European Union fail to take action, Branimir decides to take things into his own hands. Together with his sidekick Rayko, he sets off hunting refugees, afterwards handing them over to the police. One day, however, things go badly wrong and a Syrian man is accidentally killed. Back home, Branimir finds out that his good hearted wife Mariya provides shelter for Rasha, a young refugee girl that got separated from all her loved ones. When it finally becomes clear that the killed migrant is actually Rasha’s boyfriend, things get out of control.

ABOUT

Newspaper articles about a Bulgarian refugee hunter inspired Mien Bogaert (libretto) and Benjamien Lycke (composition) to write this new short opera for four singers and twenty instrumentalists. How does a man come to hunt people that are fleeing war and persecution? And what kind of encounters does such a personality need to start considering refugees as valuable human beings, instead of as problematic objects? The first version of CYCLOPS, a musical drama at the external borders of Europe, was performed as a study project at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in December 2016.

TEAM AND CAST

Conductor: Justus Tennie
Staging and set: Mien Bogaert
Costumes: Dennis Peschke
Dramaturgy: Franziska Eisele

Branimir: Immanuel Klein
Mariya: Franziska Buchner
Rayko: Moritz Vieth
Rasha: Nívea Freitas

Extras: Mostafa Ahmadi, Ingmar Grapenbrade, Eddy Harkess, Clemens Wolff

Video: Svenja Bestek, David Grzesik, Fenja Höbling, Alexander Nahm, Jan Petersen, Vanessa Reuwsaat, Laura Trivedi

Instrumentalists from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

PERFORMANCES

Friday, 9 December 2016, Theaterquartier Gaußstraße 190 Hamburg (DE)
Saturday, 10 December 2016, Theaterquartier Gaußstraße 190 Hamburg (DE)

MEDIA

Leyers, G. (2016). De sterren van morgen: Mien Bogaert. Portici, 1 (3), pp.62-65.(NL)

Photos: © Philip Artus