Preview of the MaerzMusik 2025 Programme: Opening With “MELENCOLIA”

MaerzMusik 2025 will take place from 21 to 30 March under the artistic direction of KamilaMetwaly. The 24th edition of the festival organised by Berliner Festspiele will open on 21 March at 20:00 with the German premiere of the experimental music theatre show “MELENCOLIA” by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in cooperation with StaatsoperUnter den Linden. A further performance will take place on 22 March at 17:00. Advance ticket sales start today, 14 November, at 14:00.

The work “MELENCOLIA – A Show Against the Indifference of the Universe” by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck, commissioned by the Bregenz Festival and Ensemble Modern, was premiered in Bregenz on 18 August 2022. Following a guest performance at the HOLLAND Festival, “MELENCOLIA” will celebrate its German premiere at MaerzMusik at the festival opening on 21 March 2025 in cooperation with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Immersed in 3D soundscapes, performers from Ensemble Modern and the Apollo Choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will take listeners into a deep exploration of enigmatic, melancholic worlds where reality and virtuality are combined on stage. “MELENCOLIA” transcends the superficially spectacular to encourage the audience to reflect on themselves and challenge the indifference of the universe. The work has already been recognised for its innovation by becoming the first music theatre to receive an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica. 

Over the following nine festival days of MaerzMusik 2025 (until 30 March), further multidisciplinary projects and concerts will be presented that transcend traditional dualisms, presenting new interrelational perspectives that underscore the profound interconnectedness of social, technological and ecological systems. Central to this artistic exploration is Enno Poppe’s new composition “Streik“ for ten drum sets, which has just been premiered at the Donaueschingen Musiktage and poses the question: What happens when a solo instrument is multiplied many times? Another perspective on percussion as well as a reflection on the power of breath is offered by the work “Poetica” by Chaya Czernowin, composed for Steven Schick and Les Percussions de Strasbourg and premiered at HELLERAU in April 2024. “Minor Characters” by Jennifer Walshe and Matthew Shlomowitz (premiered in August 2023, Darmstadt Summer Course) will be presented by Ensemble Nikel in their festival debut, alongside “Limina / Sensation 1” by Mark Barden and Ligia Lewis. The new work “Drifting to the Rhythms at the Southeast of Nowhere” by the Berlin duo Nguyễn + Transitory, which is being developed in Thailand in collaboration with dance artists from Chiang Mai, will also premiere.

MaerzMusik 2025 will also present works by Jad Atoui, Wojtek Blecharz, Raven Chacon, Susie Ibarra, Mazen Kerbaj, Panayiotis Kokoras, Kuba Krzewiński, Joan La Barbara, Catherine Lamb, George Lewis, Liza Lim, Wadada Leo Smith, Ute Wassermann, Pamela Z and others, alongside ensembles that include Percussion Orchestra Cologne, Synaesthesis, Yarn/Wire and The Monochrome Project. 

Advance ticket sales for “MELENCOLIA” start on 14 November 14:00, for the other programme highlights on 9 January. The complete festival programme will be published in February.

Accreditation for MaerzMusik 2025 starts with advance ticket sales in January.

We will be happy to arrange interviews with artistic director Kamila Metwaly and with participating artists. Please contact us by e-mail presse@berlinerfestspiele.de or call us on +49 30 254 89 223.

Press images are available for download in our press area.

---

„MELENCOLIA“
by Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck

Haus der Berliner Festspiele
21 March 2025 at 20:00 
22 March 2025 at 17:00

TICKETS

Starting with Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “Melencolia I”, numerous figures and themes are presented on the stage of “MELENCOLIA” and set in relation to one another: visiting football stadiums and digital cemeteries of virtual “Second Life” worlds, Austrian folk songs, virtuoso instrumental music and Japanese karaoke, AI voice clones and digital guests including the Iranian ney-anbān virtuoso Saeid Shanbehzadeh, Muntendorf/Lobeck go in search of the liberating melancholic mood in a series of seven tableaux.

Tailored for 14 musicians of the Ensemble Modern and accompanied by singers from the Apollo Choir, this work addresses the historical complexities of melancholy – perceived variously as an illness, as a way of overcoming earthly suffering or as the sister of genius. The puzzling polyhedron in Albrecht Dürer’s engraving has become a symbol for these contradictions amid the human desire for salvation.

“MELENCOLIA” combines classical performance with cutting-edge approaches at the intersection of art and technology. Set in a post-digital environment, this work of music theatre weaves together a fascinating tapestry of sound and visuals, a hybrid space between showroom and green-screen studio, between real and virtual worlds.
“MELENCOLIA” transcends the superficially spectacular to prompt introspection among the audience and, beyond this, to challenge the indifference of the universe.

Brigitta Muntendorf – Composition, Artistic Direction, Staging, Dramaturgy
Moritz Lobeck – Staging, Dramaturgy
Veronika Simmering – Visual Worlds
Sita Messer – Stage, Costume
Begoña Garcia Navas – Lighting Design
Matthias Rieker – Light
Floris Dijkers – Lighting Operator
David Bräuer – Technical Direction
Warped Type, (Andreas Huck, Roland Nebe) – Live Video
Felix Dreher – Sound Direction
Lukas Nowok – Audio Programming, Live Electronics
Banu Sahin – 3D Audio
Volker Bernhard – Sound Engineering
Saeid Shanbehzadeh – ney-anbān (Virtual Soloist)
Members of the Apollo-Choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Ensemble Modern

With texts by Robert Burton, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Philippe Toussaint and others

The creatures from “MELENCOLIA” can be brought to life through augmented reality by downloading the interactive MELENCOLIA app from GooglePlay or the AppStore and scanning one of the QR codes displayed in the foyers of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele during the visit to the event. If several people use the app at the same time and in the same place, they can form a melancholic mobile phone chorus.

In cooperation with Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Commissioned by Bregenzer Festspiele and Ensemble Modern

---

MaerzMusik is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Media partners: radio3, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, arte, field notes, Dussmann das Kulturkaufhaus, Exberliner, Monopol – Magazin für Kunst und Leben, Wall und Yorck Kinogruppe.