Manon Lescaut 

06.06.2018 Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 2), Performing Arts Festival

17.11./18.11.2017 Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich

In the opera Manon Lescaut, the title character pays for her immoral behavior with death. Unable to choose between luxury and love, she dies of thirst in the desert. But what would happen if Manon could tell her story from her own perspective? The performance Manon Lescaut focuses on a fragment of the death aria Sola Perduta Abbandonata, in which the artist replaces each instrument of the orchestra with her own voice. This voice is played in a loop throughout the performance over 12 speakers arranged in a semicircle around the space. In sync with her "self-orchestra," the artist slowly walks in a counterclockwise circle, singing the aria for 60 minutes while carrying two water jugs, which steadily empty as they drip over the course of the hour. In the background, a video shows her from behind as she walks through the Californian desert, similar to Manon in the final act of the opera. This staging creates a multi-layered acoustic space in which a tragic self-conversation unfolds. The various voices from the recording and the live singing overlap, creating an intense acoustic relationship. The statement "non voglio morir" (I do not want to die) becomes a powerful expression of the will to live. A choral "I" emerges, singing against death. Manon resists time and rejects the opera’s typical narrative of the female, fetishized death on stage. She reflects on the possibilities of a female and human existence—both on stage and in the desert.

Manon Lescaut 

06.06.2018 Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 2), Performing Arts Festival

17.11./18.11.2017 Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich

In the opera Manon Lescaut, the title character pays for her immoral behavior with death. Unable to choose between luxury and love, she dies of thirst in the desert. But what would happen if Manon could tell her story from her own perspective? The performance Manon Lescaut focuses on a fragment of the death aria Sola Perduta Abbandonata, in which the artist replaces each instrument of the orchestra with her own voice. This voice is played in a loop throughout the performance over 12 speakers arranged in a semicircle around the space. In sync with her "self-orchestra," the artist slowly walks in a counterclockwise circle, singing the aria for 60 minutes while carrying two water jugs, which steadily empty as they drip over the course of the hour. In the background, a video shows her from behind as she walks through the Californian desert, similar to Manon in the final act of the opera. This staging creates a multi-layered acoustic space in which a tragic self-conversation unfolds. The various voices from the recording and the live singing overlap, creating an intense acoustic relationship. The statement "non voglio morir" (I do not want to die) becomes a powerful expression of the will to live. A choral "I" emerges, singing against death. Manon resists time and rejects the opera’s typical narrative of the female, fetishized death on stage. She reflects on the possibilities of a female and human existence—both on stage and in the desert.

Artistic Direction, Dramaturgy and Performance: Lulu Obermayer​
Technical Direction and Sound Design: Michele Piazzi
Video: Vasco Cesaretti
Editing: Elena Betros​
Production Management: Rat&Tat Kulturbuero