Holland Festival – Melencolia – Brigitta Muntendorf, Ensemble Modern

What is melancholy?

The answer will be different for everyone. Muntendorf (1982, Hamburg) is one of the most exciting composers of her generation. In Melencolia, performed by 14 brilliant musicians from Ensemble Modern and a six-person choir, she presents seven tableaux 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

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 and 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 a performance that is alienating, funny and whimsical, but above all also deeply melancholic.