Premiere / First ever performances in Germany LOST HIGHWAY Music Theatre by Olga Neuwirth (*1968) Libretto by and Olga Neuwirth based on the script for the film by the same name (1997) by and Barry Gifford Performed in English with German surtitles

Conductor: Karsten Januschke Director: Yuval Sharon Set, Video and Lighting Designer: Jason H. Thompson, Kaitlyn Pietras Live Electronics: Markus Noisternig, Gilbert Nouno Sound Organiser: Norbert Ommer Costume Designer: Doey Lüthi Dramaturge: Stephanie Schulze

Pete: John Brancy Fred: Jeff Burrell Renee / Alice: Elizabeth Reiter Mr. Eddy / Dick Laurent: David Moss Mystery Man: Rupert Enticknap Andy / Guard / Arnie: Samuel Levine Pete's Mother: Juanita Lascarro Pete's Father: Jörg Schäfer Ed / Detective Hank: Nicholas Bruder Al / Detective Lou / Prison Director: Jim Phetterplace jr. Doctor / The Man: Jeff Hallman

Ensemble Modern

With generous support from the Aventis Foundation, Kulturfond Frankfurt RheinMain and Frankfurt Patronatsverein – Sektion Oper

David Lynch's film Lost Highway (1997) is a fascinating combination of psycho-thriller, horror and film noir. The Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth (*1968) and Literary Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek based their libretto on David Lynch and Barry Gifford's script. The World Premiere took place at the Steirische Herbst in Graz in 2003. Neuwirth developed a very ambitious way of telling the story about the „study of a person, who cannot come to terms with his fate“ (Gifford), combined with feverish changes in scene. Her score is extremely complex, combining intermedial threads with grand scale live electronics and video, which makes the fictionalised reality become almost virtual.

„Dick Laurent is dead.“ The Jazz musician Fred hears this sentence over his intercom, and a door opens to a parallel universe. A mysterious man at a party claims he is in Fred's bedroom at the same time. A little later Fred finds himself, covered in blood, leaning over the dismembered body of his wife. Fred's grip on life comes apart at the seams in a series of surreal situations…

The conductor of the Ensemble Modern is Karsten Januschke, a Kapellmeister at Oper Frankfurt until 2014/15. He recently conducted a double bill of Ernst Křenek's Der Diktator and Viktor Ullmann's Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. The American director Yuval Sharon made his debut in Bayreuth this summer, with a new production of Lohengrin, after drawing attention to himself with unconventional productions and use of multi-media. The cast combines Singers and Actors from the Free Scene and Oper Frankfurt’s Ensemble: The American baritone John Brancy (Pete) recently sang Moralès / Dancaïro in Bizet's Carmen in Frankfurt. His countryman, the actor Jeff Burrell (Fred), lives in Berlin after being artistically trained in the United States. The vocal artist David Moss is also from the USA. Neuwirth wrote the roles of Mr. Eddy / Dick Laurent for his voice. The soprano Elizabeth Reiter (Renee / Alice), another American, has been a Member of the Ensemble in Frankfurt since 2013/14.

Premiere / First performance in Germany: Wednesday September 12th 2018, at 19.30hrs in the Bockenheimer Depot

Further performances: September 16th, 17th, 19th, 21st, 23rd 2018 Unless otherwise stated, all performances begin at 19.30hrs

Tickets cost: € 25 to € 80 (with a 12.5% pre-booking fee when not purchased direct from the theatre)

Tickets can be obtained from the usual outlets, by telephone +49 (0)69 – 212 49 49 4 or online www.oper-frankfurt.de.

I do hope you might be able to publish this event. For further information, ordering photographs and reserving press tickets please contact Holger Engelhardt (Leitung Pressereferat) on +49 (0)69 – 212 46 727. His fax number is +49 (0)69 – 212 37 164 or you can email him on [email protected]