With this subtitle, composer Joachim Brackx and librettist Oscar van den Boogaard are aiming to create a mild degree of provocation.

A man, alone with his memories… While telling, he revives the past…  A coffee house in Berlin. Tosca and Louis are locked in a lovers’ embrace. The scene draws the interest of a group of angels. The passionate feelings of two people who are in love with one another is new to them. They only know the universal love that is all-inclusive – a heavenly feeling that is without conflict. Fascinated by the love of the two people kissing one another, the angel Alpha takes the place of Tosca, a position she no longer wants to leave. Tosca finds her lover in Alpha’s arms. She leaves with the angels so that she will never again have to experience the pain she feels. A coffee house. Alpha and Louis are locked in a lovers’ embrace. Nothing seems to have changed. Or has it? If you superimpose the first and last images of this story, the minor differences reveal a passionate drama.

Joachim Brackx’s music does more than give voice to the dramatic course of the story, it plumbs the inner tension of an encounter. Brackx has already worked with free polyphony, which gives the singers space to make their own decisions. This results in the genesis of polyphonic singing  which the composer has not determined beforehand.

With this way of writing, Brackx touches on the essence of what theatre is. Two people encounter one another – something happens. Through the figure of Tosca, Oscar van den Boogaard exposes the driving force behind all utopian ideas: the desire for a world without pain. However, in this world the love between two people cannot flourish. Only by leaving that world, like Alpha, can there be an encounter. At the risk of being hurt.

Credits

  • Choir • Currende
  • Soprano • Anne Mastriau / Hannelore Muyllaert
  • Text • Oscar van den Bogaard
  • Musical direction • Filip Rathé
  • Musical performance • SPECTRA
  • Dramaturgy • Koen Haagdorens
  • Composition • Joachim Brackx
  • Direction • Blitz
  • Play • Steven van Watermeulen