Endless Pleasures II: Orpheus & die Päonienfrau

2019

Transmedial music theater by Marc Sinan with a libretto by Maike Wetzel — Marc Sinan Company, Puppentheater Halle, Ensemble ConTempo Beijing, schnellebuntebilder.

Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion, Europe and China, myth and present day – Marc Sinan combines them all in this music-theater production.

In the European opera as in the Chinese play, the protagonist’s lover returns from the underworld. In ENDLESS PLEASURES, love becomes a force of anarchy, building a bridge that can reach beyond death. With no respect for the order of nature nor for the traditions of the world, it pulls both couples deeper and deeper into an ecstatic frenzy somewhere between reality and fiction.

The Puppentheater Halle, the Ensemble ConTempo Beijing, the multimedia collective schnellebuntebilder, the Marc Sinan Company and other artists unite for an interdisciplinary format that amalgamates new music, puppetry, traditional instruments, digital set design and opera.

Premiere: 19 October 2019, Puschkinhaus, Halle (Saale)

Photos by Falk Wenzel © Theater, Oper und Orchester GmbH Halle

Christoph Werner
Director

Marc Sinan
Music

Maike Wetzel
Libretto

Ralf Meyer
Dramaturgy

Angela Baumgart
Scenery and costume

Lili Laube, Hagen Tilp
Puppets

Sebastian Huber / schnellebuntebilder
Light design

Lea-Katharina Gramzow
Assistant director

Alfiia Koneewa
Scenery and costume assistance

Claudia Luise Bose
Mama E

Ines Heinrich Frank / Claudia Luise Bose
Peonie Lady

Simon Buchegger / Ines Heinrich Frank
Big O

Nils Dreschke / Nico Parisius
Manager, Narrator

Nils Dreschke / Simon Buchegger
Host, Judge

Nico Parisius
Chef

Franziska Rattay
Singer’s double

Ensemble ConTempo:
Zhang Luqi
Sheng
Zheng Yi
Zheng
Li Xingmei
Pipa

Further musicians:
Wu Wei
Sheng
Ming Wang
Zheng
Weiping Wang
Pipa

Marc Sinan Company:
Hasti Molavian
Mezzo-soprano
Marc Sinan
Guitar
Oğuz Büyükberber
Clarinet
Maria Schneider
Percussion
Miako Klein
Recorder

A cooperation by the Marc Sinan Company, the Puppentheater Halle and whiteBOX Munich in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing

Project funding

Funded by the Theatre Cooperation Fund from the Federal Cultural Institution and through the Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt