Musical Land
chamber opera for 4 singers, children choir and chamber orchestra
YEAR OF COMPOSITION
2013
OPUS NUMBER
79
TIME DURATION
25'
LIBRETTO
Amy Stebbins & Felix Seiler
THE FIRST PERFORMANCE
20.06.2014, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Evita - Laila Salome Fischer / mezzosoprano
Maria von Trapp - Alexandra Hutton / soprano
Annie - Christina Sidak / soprano
Schoenberg - Jörg Schörner / tenor
Dancer - Mimi Jeong
Dancer - Javier Carranza Uribe
Kinderchor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Musiker des Orchesters der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Martin Nagashima Toft - conductor
Stage Director - Felix Seiler
Dramaturge - Amy Stebbins
Set-Design - Lars Unger
Costume-Design - Belén Montoliú
Children's Chorus - Christian Lindhorst
Production - Nele Kathlen Tippelmann
COMMISSION
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Read the release from the premiere here.
SYNOPSIS
Alarms and sirens blare across the theater. An emergency radio broadcast informs us that Musical Land has suffered a series of explosions, devastating the country and leaving its citizens for dead. Only Evita, Maria von Trapp and Little Orphan Annie are left. These three musical characters now find themselves in a strange world—dark, gloomy, uninhabitable, where they’re greeted by a 20th-century orchestra of all things!
Grieved by the loss of her beloved home and confused by the strange noises emitted by the orchestra, Annie becomes homesick. Reaching for her guitar, Maria lifts her spirits with a song about the strength to be found in love (“Das Leben zu Zweit”). Evita interrupts them to defend “The Single Life” as the superior life-style choice. None of this helps Annie, however, who starts to break down.
The women accept that Musical Land is gone and resolve to commit suicide. After several failed suicide attempts, Evita signals for Annie and Maria to attack the orchestra. With their hands around the conductor's neck, the music comes to a grinding halt when a man appears, introducing himself as the German composer Arnold Schoenberg. In typical Deus ex Machina fashion, he explains that Musical Land lives on inside each one of them and they must “live life like in a musical!”
(...) Dariusz Przybylski’s Musical Land, makes a playful impression, with fantastical stories invented by the librettists (Amy Stebbins and Felix Seiler). (...)
Saori Kanemaki
bachtrack.com
(...) Le due opere composte dal polacco Dariusz Przybylski, Musical Land e Fall, erano giocose, quasi circensi, basate su storie molto fantasiose, inventate dai librettisti Amy Stebbins and Felix Seiler. Nella prima tre protagoniste di celebri musical (Maria da The Sound of Music, Annie e Evita Perón: interpretate dalle ottime Alexandra Hutton, Laila Salome Fischer e Christina Sidak) si interrogavano sul destino di quel genere musicale. E la risposta era brutale, con l’arrivo della atonalità e di Arnold Schönberg (interpretato da Jörg Schörner) che ne decretava la fine, uccidendo tutti i personaggi sul palcoscenico. (...)
Gianluigi Mattietti
i blog di MUSICA
(...) Bei Przybylski das krasse Gegenteil: Der Pole lässt seine Sänger in pompöse Kostüme kleiden, verballhornt seine Liebespaare auf kongeniale Weise und feiert den Ausverkauf des Kitschs – etwa in dem Stück „Musical Land“ – mit urkomischen, messerscharfen Pointen. Da erschießt der Zwölfton-Guru Anton Schönberg die Musical-Größe Evita oder die Stepptanz-Stars Ginger und Fred, um seine unspielbaren kakofonischen Opern zu verteidigen. (...)
Tomasz Kurianowicz
Der Tagesspiegel