Lucia Ronchetti: Der Sonne entgegen

Der Sonne entgegen is a dramatic meditation for 14 solo vocal performers, brass ensemble and live electronics. New and old frontiers of our hyper-communicative world are the main subjects, the point of departure of the project.

The intention of Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti and the dramaturgs is to create a music theatre that abandons the traditional ideas of soloists and protagonists in favour of a transforming and fluctuating community from which individuals emerge and into which they disappear again.

The dramaturgy follows the multiple transformations of the 14 performers in fragmented, associatively connected and dramatic situations. They appear as Europeans enjoying a seemingly wonderful holiday on an exotic island-bubble, as refugees facing an insurmountable barrier in desert-like surroundings, as stateless people or survivors in the First World, and finally as unheard-of intellectuals engrossed in complex discussions about loss of territory and migration. A young female figure-skater gliding through the polished space and crossing frontiers, a choir of the dead standing on the border discussing the almighty power of time, and an iceberg speaking about its borderless Antarctic land are outsider figures, external observers.

The members of the cast perform as both singers and actors. They are a sort of percussion orchestra, creating all their sounds with their voices, their bodies and simple props, and using the stage itself as a gigantic drum. For much of the piece there is no external sound support, only the plain and sometimes fragile a cappella performance.

At the end of the work, the brass ensemble creates a meta-historical event reminiscent of the Flood, a remake of the biblical story where everything seems too complex, too loosely connected ever to be resolved. The rainstorm affects the performers, the music, the narration – and the audience as well.