I Am Your Labyrinth

I am Your labyrinth

The genesis of an opera Wolfgang Rihm’s Dionysos at the Salzburg Festival

Documentary and opera film by Bettina Ehrhardt DOCUMENTARY A Film by Bettina Ehrhardt

I am Your Labyrinth It was a daring enterprise in every respect. A work of music drama that the composer Wolfgang Rihm had carried about with him Length 34' for more than 15 years – its premiere already postponed three Cat. no. A04500645 times – was now to be committed to paper in a matter of weeks. A bce films & more production A production team that had to plan to a tight deadline before in co-production with WDR and Arte the piece was even in existence – rehearsals began a week after with the kind support of Salzburg Festival composition was completed – was faced with a highly artificial text: Nietzsche’s late “Dionysos dithyrambs”, the last poetic thoughts of the philosopher, published shortly before his breakdown. Opera Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm took Nietzsche’s enigmatic poems and made theatrical scenes out of them, linking Nietzsche’s poetry with Dionysos episodes from his life. “The text is by me, every word is by Nietzsche,” says Rihm to explain the dual authorship. Bettina Conductor Ingo Metzmacher Ehrhardt succeeded in “living” it through the camera, capturing Orchestra Deutsches it in sound and vision – just as stage director Pierre Audi managed Symphonie-Orchester Berlin to give form to “Dionysos - Szenen und Dithyramben. Eine Chorus Konzertvereinigung Opernphantasie” for the opening of the 2010 Salzburg Festival! Wiener Staatsopernchor An act of daring and ultimately a triumph for Wolfgang Rihm, for Chorus Master Jörn H. Andresen the musicians and singers at this grandiose Salzburg premiere: Johannes Martin Kränzle in the title role, Mojca Erdmann as 1st High Soprano / Ariadne Mojca Erdmann Ariadne, singing music Rihm wrote expressly for her voice, and for 2nd High Soprano Elin Rombo the production team with Pierre Audi and artist Jonathan Meese. Mezzo-Soprano Virpi Räisänen Alto Julia Faylenbogen Both films, the film of the opera and its documentation, form N. Johannes Martin Kränzle a single unit: the documentary shows viewers how electrifying A Guest/Apollo Matthias Klink and brilliant the teamwork was for everyone involved in the The Skin Uli Kirsch premiere; it takes them to the original locations, the mountains Stage Director Pierre Audi of the Engadine at Sils-Maria, where Nietzsche, sitting on the Video Director Bettina Ehrhardt Surlej rock, developed the principles of his philosophy, according Length 122' to his own mythology. These various angles, with Nietzsche’s quotations, rehearsal excerpts and opera extracts, give rise to a Cat. no. A04001575 film about the themes of the opera, the backgrounds and ideas By courtesy of Universal Edition AG, that led to its creation, Wolfgang Rihm’s lucid, almost cinematic Vienna and Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG , Mainz composition techniques. Both sets of images, those following the rehearsals up to the actual performance and the metaphorical A bce films & more production in cooperation with pictures from Sils-Maria, are linked by conversations with MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg Wolfgang Rihm and the leading cast members of the Salzburg with the kind support of Salzburg Festival performance, conductor Ingo Metzmacher, stage director Pierre Audi and his production team, and the artistic director Shot in HDTV 1080/25p of the Salzburg Festival Jürgen Flimm. Nietzsche’s frenzy was infectious: “I am not human, I am dynamite!”

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