FIASKO – Opera Installation / By K.A.U.&Wdowik / Blecharz Description FIASKO is a transeuropean opera installation that takes up the tradition of opera and transforms it into a contemporary, open form. Starting from the metaphor of the loss of voice and against the background of current European conflicts, the directorial team K.A.U. &Wdowik, composer Wojtek Blecharz and cinematographer Dino Osmanovic embarked on a cinematic journey to Europe’s easternmost border. Background From Germany across the Bay of Gdańsk to Kaliningrad, they encountered reverberating expressions of local traditions – such as a traditional costume group performing circle dances on the grounds of a former ammunition factory, the humming songs of Polish peasant women plucking down, or hunting horn players and bagpipers with imposing wind instruments. The artists combine their encounters with people, musical styles and stories in impressive images. Composer Wojtek Blecharz combines the musical material of the traditional groups in the film with alienated reminiscences from the classical opera repertoire and his own compositions. Team With local traditional clubs from Germany and Poland Actress – Magdalena Koleśnik Idea, Realization – K.A.U.&Wdowik (Bergmann, Reifler, Schönijahn, Wdowik) Composition – Wojtek Blecharz Musical direction – Johannes Harneit Dramaturgy – Matthias Mohr Stage and costume design –Rahel Kesselring Video editing – René Liebert Cinematography – Dino Osmanovic Production management –Theresa Willeke Cinematography – Dino Osmanovic Camera Assistant – Benjamin Schmid Production Management Travel – Silvia Dudek Collaboration Funded by Previous shows 2019 World premiere – Sophiensaele // Nowy Teatre // Hellerau European Centre for the Arts // studiobühne Köln Images by Rita Cuto and Killa Schütze

FIASKO – Film Opera / By K.A.U.&Wdowik / Blecharz Description With compositions by Wojtek Blecharz (premiere), Hans-Joachim Hespos (premiere), Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Wolfgang-Amadeus Mozart and others. „With what catastrophe would the European utopia end, were it an opera?“ Along new and old borders, from Darmstadt across the Bay of Gdansk to Kaliningrad, the group K.A.U.&Wdowik embarks on a cinematic journey to the easternmost border of Europe. Their encounters with people, music and stories are linked in impressive images to a libretto, on the basis of which a multi-perspective film opera is created together with the composer Wojtek Blecharz and the musical director Johannes Harneit. Background At the beginning of the opera there is a crisis: if the opera lives from the vocal embodiment of the innermost emotional worlds, it is the loss of her voice that makes a young woman embark on a journey into the unknown. Her destination is the end of Europe in order to find either a new beginning or death. In the borderland between local musical traditions, fragments from the European opera repertoire and new compositions, Fiasco opens up unknown musical and visual spaces. As the result of a unique trans-European collaboration, this opera is both a swan song to the European work and its rebirth. Team With the Opera Chorus of the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the State Orchestra of the Staatstheater Darmstadt. With local traditional clubs from Germany and Poland Actress – Magdalena Koleśnik Idea, Realization – K.A.U.&Wdowik (Bergmann, Reifler, Schönijahn, Wdowik) Composition – Wojtek Blecharz Musical direction – Johannes Harneit Dramaturgy – Matthias Mohr Stage and costume design –Rahel Kesselring Video editing – René Liebert Cinematography – Dino Osmanovic Production management –Theresa Willeke Cinematography – Dino Osmanovic Camera Assistant – Benjamin Schmid Production Management Travel – Silvia Dudek   Collaboration Funded by Previous shows 2018 World premiere Staatstheater Darmstadt – Fonds Doppelpass Images by Killa Schütze