News

It took three years, but now the time has finally come: KOPFKINO- DER FILM is experiencing its public premiere after an extremely successful festival tour. And it’s happening in the cinema just around the corner- on your sofa and your screen!

We’ve been trying to get an official theatrical release for three years, but thanks to Corona, it’s totally utopian right now. Bad luck for our multi-award winning film, good luck for our audience.

Starting today, KOPFKINO is available for six weeks, live and in color. So get the champagne bottle out of the fridge, pop some popcorn in the microwave, go to Vimeo and enter your password:

https://vimeo.com/268635692

Password: KOPFKINO2020

That our societies – interconnected and therefore in the plural – are in the process of transforming themselves is something we feel more and more intensely. That the directions of these transformations are often not yet “right”, that they are not sustainable, we mostly feel and know that too. Nevertheless, we repress the fear that the climate and species crises cause us instead of turning it into courage to act. Our anger flares up without us gaining political energy from it. And the many who are already working on the future still feel isolated. Art and entertainment venues can literally show that you can look good with less material and energy consumption, for example by consistently recycling stage sets – as the Neukölln Opera has been doing for years. Die entsprechende „Ökologisierung“ der Kulturbetriebe steht erst am Anfang; wir dürfen auf den weiteren Weg gespannt sein. It is at least as important that artists open themselves and us to socio-ecological topics, involve us in their contradictions and entertain us by confronting our knowledge and feelings instead of repressing them. The Neukölln Opera is treading this path of openness (among others) with its NEW SONGS FROM THE EARTH – and also makes me, as a sustainability scientist, quite curious.*

Dr. Manuel Rivera
Research Group Leader Art and Science for Sustainable Development at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V. (IASS).

As a much sought-after expert at the interface of sustainability research and artistic practice, Dr. Manuel Rivera has accompanied the music theater project NEW SONGS FROM THE EARTH from the very beginning. On October 29, following the performance at the musical-culinary evening Crisis Sounds – Kitchen Talks, he will talk with colleagues from the IASS and the audience about the perspectives that arise from NEW SONGS FROM THE EARTH. All information about the evening and registration can be found here.

NEUE LIEDER VON DER ERDE

Music theater by Neuköllner Oper, Stegreif – The Improvising Symphony Orchestra and Syrian and German authors.
World premiere on 15 October 2022. Through 12 November 2022.

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*This text appeared in print in the NKO Playbill October-December.

A Project by Neuköllner Oper and

Kindly supported by

A total of three times our productions are nominated at the German Musical Theater Award…

A little taste of Volkslied 3000. The Concert by Alin Coen and Max Prosa and “Vergiss mich nicht”, their song based on AI-generated lyrics:

The mountains, an oil rig, the desert….three places in our plays that stand for a desire to explore the world and for a world of change, and thus for the themes and artist* teams in the 22/23 season.

… about the winners of the composition competition, who can be heard live at the Kommen und Gehen Festival in Görlitz on August 21 and at VOLKSLIED 3000. Das Konzert on September 3, alongside commissioned compositions by Max Prosa & Alin Coen, Die Grenzgänger, João Oreccia and Tonia Reeh.

We congratulate the following prize winners for the musical settings of the texts generated by the artificial intelligence GPT3 (in no particular order)

Johannes Wester: “Stars
Anton Israel: “Time to flee”.
Pony Pracht: “And I know”.
Migati: “Generate little text, please”.
Rosenroth: “Time of silence”

as well as the special prize winner

Anne Munka: “Nazis out!”

VOLKSLIED 3000 – Das Konzert

3 September 2022, 8 pm

Presentation of winning songs and the commissioned works by Max Prosa & Alin Coen, Die Grenzgänger, João Oreccia und Tonia Reeh at Neuköllner Oper

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From tonight on there will finally be dancing around the golden calf again at PARADISE LOST – THE GENESIS OF MUSICAL in front of a sold-out hall, thanks to the spontaneous stepping in of Fabian Grimmeisen and the further commitment of Nathan Johns!

Photo: Thomas Koy

Hartmut Dorgerloh, der Generalintendant des Humbolt-Forums, über unsere gemeinsame Produktion Mexico Aura: The Myth of Possession…

The winners of the BERLINER OPERNPREIS comPOSITION, the competition organized by Neuköllner Oper and GASAG since 1997, have been announced:

The jury decided to award first prize to the team of Cypriot composer Andys Skordis and Serbian-born librettist Jelena Vuksanovic, and second prize to the team of Australian composer Samuel Penderbayne and German director Theresa von Halle.

The winning works were premiered yesterday in the Kulturstall of Schloss Britz and subsequently evaluated by the jury.

The productions can be seen again on June 24 and 25 at Kulturstall Britz.

The two award-winning works stage the short stories by Ferdinand von Schirach in a moving way. Ein hellblauer Tag/ A Light Blue Day takes us into the inner worlds of a wrongly convicted child murderer and to the origins of Greek theater from cult and intoxication. Subotnik combines current play styles in a virtuoso way and draws a moving portrait of the failure of the young female criminal defense attorney who wants to live up to all expectations

Bernhard Glocksin, Artistic Director of Neuköllner Oper and one of five jury members

The future lies in the next generation. Nothing could be more obvious than offering young talent a stage to try out new things. And with the Neuköllner Oper, we have had the perfect partner for this for 25 years, because it is experienced and established. So this year we are celebrating our silver wedding anniversary, another good reason to support the Neukölln Opera in providing space for talent and innovation.

Georg Friedrichs, Chairman of the Management Board of GASAG on the longstanding cooperation between Neuköllner Oper and the company.

With the BERLINER OPERNPREIS 2020/22, Neuköllner Oper and GASAG challenged young composers* to move out of the art bubble of a so-called “new music” and towards an exchange with society and its different musical languages.

The importance of such socially relevant music theater is underlined by the first-time support of the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Theater Freiburg, which will offer the first-prize winning team further collaboration.

Alle Fotos: © Thomas Koy

Paradise Lost’s director & author Peter Lund on the anniversary of our cooperation with the musical/show course at the UdK Berlin

Currently, another ensemble member is ill, therefore both the premiere and the performances on May 21, 22 and 24 are cancelled, new date for the premiere is May 25, 2022. Already purchased tickets can be returned at our box office for a refund or a voucher, for this you can simply write an email to tickets@neukoellneroper.de. Unfortunately, a direct exchange is not possible for organizational reasons. If you have purchased a ticket for one of the cancelled performances and would like to see another performance of Amy Stebbins and Sir Henry’s Sink Play: There are still tickets available for all performance dates of SCHÖNER WOHNEN!

SCHÖNER WOHNEN
Ein Abstellkammerspiel by Amy Stebbins (text, direction) and Sir Henry (music)

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Photo: © Thomas Koy

Due to another illness in the ensemble, tomorrow’s performance (5.5.) of LILI. DIE LETZTE NACHT DER LILI BOULANGER unfortunately has to be cancelled, tickets can be returned for a voucher/refund at our box office (tickets@neukoellneroper.de).

The good news is that soprano Amanda Becker is filling in Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Merlind C. Pohl for the musical part of Hélène/Miki Piré, scenically Judith Shoemaker takes over!