A large orchestra, three choirs, over 200 participants spanning singing, dance, and a rock band: Leonard Bernstein's Mass defies all dimensions. With this production, Hamburg's new General Music Director Omer Meir Wellber continues the series of spectacular special productions at the Internationales Musikfest — with Conni Trommlitz contributing the choreography for the dance component.
That the FBI warned the US President ahead of a world premiere sounds absurd — yet that is exactly what happened in 1971 with Bernstein's Mass. The times were too charged, marked by the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the assassination of Kennedy; the content too volatile. Rather than a conventional Mass setting, the work takes the form of a kind of performance that deconstructs the Catholic Mass rite and repurposes it as a political demonstration. Latin liturgical chants give way to gospel, cool jazz, rock, march music, Broadway swing, Indian ragas, and expressionist avant-garde. Between ritual and rebellion, a vast mosaic of sound takes shape — culminating in an overwhelming call for peace.
Musical Direction: Omer Meir Wellber
Stage Direction and Video: Alexander Radulescu
Choreography: Constantin Trommlitz
Dramaturgy: Janina Zell, Lucilla Schmidinger
Dancers: Nathalia Gómez Reséndiz, Victor Karwath, Amin „Drillz" Mohammadian, Maya Selezneva, Yan Stesel, Simone Wennerberg
Video: Constantin Trommlitz, Jasper Bruijns
Celebrant: Will Liverman. Boy Soprano: Knabensolist des Hamburger Knabenchores
Street People: Stefanie Bruggeling, Michelle Buck, Chiara Ducomble, Nattan Ferreira, Sarah Hanikel, Lukas Löbner, Andrew Munn, Alexander Nick, Luzia Ostermann, Aphrodite Patoulidou, Timothy Roller, Maine Takeda, Tabea Tatan, Benjamin Werth, Alexander Winn, Guillermo Valdés
Photo: Maximilian Probst
Rehearsal Direction Street People and Overall Choir Direction: Pascal Adoumbou. Audi Jugendchorakademie, Rehearsal Direction: Martin Steidler, Sonja Lachenmayr. Alsterspatzen – Children's and Youth Choir of the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Rehearsal Direction: Priscilla Prueter. Hamburger Knabenchor, Rehearsal Direction: Luiz de Godoy
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg