Politics through poetry

I think it's important today to have an anthropological perspective, to look at humanity from a distance. So more and more I feel like someone who comes from another planet and gets to know us humans. And thinking: Ah, so this is humanity! Ah, this is how they behave! How exciting! This goes hand in hand with the fact that, as an artist, I don't want to take a moral position, but simply observe. A bit like Shakespeare, who also chose not to take a judgmental stance. Incidentally, this is often seen differently today, especially among young artists, where it is very much about a moral position, personal sensitivities or self-perception as a victim. I, on the other hand, agree with Chekhov, who said that as an artist you have to be as cold as ice: precisely in order to analyze. But sometimes the social takes over in art: then we talk about activism. Don't get me wrong! It's important to be an activist, and it's important to be an activist in society. But in art, I feel that poetic power is more important than political power. For me, La clemenza di Tito is therefore a poetic response to the corrupted politics of the present.

Yes, I work in very different institutions. We all know that this building is one of the most important in the world, and we also know that there is a great tradition here, which I greatly appreciate. But I see it as part of my job to question traditions. By no means in an iconoclastic way. But I do question. Because questioning is my passion! So it may well happen that I have a different view of Mozart than other artists involved in this production. But that's a good thing!

I think that Mozart had to write this work, but did not appreciate the conventional form. He did not want to write an opera seria, but an "opera vera", a true opera, as he called it. He was not interested in the final glorification of a ruler, but in a realistic, undisguised portrait of people. I mentioned Shakespeare earlier: that's exactly what it is. Here Mozart is like Shakespeare! Some things in La clemenza di Tito seem extremely contemporary, such as the way a discussion leads directly into the action. Don't waste any time! Straight into the action! Mozart wanted to show real people, real situations, real life. What do we see? An emperor who says: I need another heart. Who asks himself: Can I be a politician with love or with fear? Incidentally, there is no answer to this question in the opera. Because Tito fails. In the 18th century, convention demanded that this opera seria end with a happy ending. But it is a false happy ending. There is no real happiness at the end.

Let's take Sesto. He is the emperor's best friend, but at the same time he tries to assassinate him. With this character, together with the wonderful Emily D'Angelo, we try to develop a character that you fall in love with - and at the same time we realize that it's nonsense to try to sell such an approach. Because Sesto is a murderer. And yet he is deeply ambiguous ..

Everyone is ambiguous. Even Vitellia. We have to ask ourselves: why does she want power so much? Why is she so obsessed with something that can destroy her life? Answer: Because she has been manipulated by misconceptions. By images of power, of wealth. But we are all manipulated ... How many people think that having a lot of money will make them happier. But that's not true, we would be much freer if everyone had more or less the same amount.

The basic question here is of course: what value do Clemenza, i.e. kindness and gentleness, have today? Unfortunately, we realize that we live in a time in which all of this no longer exists. Instead, democracy is being questioned and destroyed and absolute democracy has taken over. By this I mean that the majority rules absolutely and oppresses the minority instead of protecting it. This is supported by the few who own all the money in the world - all men, no women - and the social media that manipulate people.

Yes, but I don't want to take an anecdotal approach, I don't want to show direct images of living politicians, I want to concentrate entirely on the poetry of showing conflicts on stage with the singers. I want to do this in a very minimalist way, working in detail.

That's a very good question. I'm no historian, but I would say there was a time in ancient Greece, for example, when it was very important. Then came Sparta, Sparta with its power. It was Athens versus Sparta. And it was lost. Yes, perhaps humanity loses its goodness again and again, all the time. Today, extreme capitalism has reached such a level that no power can oppose it. So much has changed in recent years: Today, fear rules, and leniency and kindness are nothing but old-fashioned words invented by a poet and no longer understood today. In the 20th century, with Nelson Mandela, we still experienced Clemenza, because he was in solitary confinement for 25 years and then he forgave the white torturers. Gandhi had Clemenza. But to be honest, I can't think of many examples.

Titus gives kindness, but the world is broken. And it's all about him, the dictator. But there is no such thing as a good dictator. Good leaders: yes. But not good dictators.

The first was gold. I worked with this color and it led to the interior of the palace and the costumes. I use gold as a provocative color, as an offensive color. A second aspect is that every day I make a drawing, a watercolor or a painting that is linked to the news of the day. For example, I have painted many landscapes from Ukraine, but also pictures based on drone footage of the destruction caused by bombing raids. A selection of these paintings will be projected onto the stage. And because I spoke earlier about art and politics: I've been asked to come to Ukraine to organize workshops - and I'm going to do it. There is a completely different meaning of art there than here at the State Opera or at Needcompany. We try to create beauty and poetry. In other countries like Ukraine, there is a tremendous urgency. I'm trying to find a balance here. It's very difficult, but I hope to give our production of Clemenza a little of what happens outside the State Opera.

For me, everyone on stage is a source of energy. This applies equally to the cast of singers, the dancers and the choir; my task is to bring these sources into a good relationship and balance. Sometimes the stage is full of people, other times it is almost empty - and it is precisely this emptiness that creates the greatest expression for me and is the greatest power. We tell the story of Titus with the singers, we show the conflicts between the characters, but the dancers give us the opportunity to offer even more and to fan out the world around them. As the stage is always like a painting for me, I want to give it additional layers of interpretation through the important poetic power of dance.

We show two moments that bring a kind of alien aesthetic into play. Firstly, the famous Odessa staircase scene from Sergei Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin, and then a live sequence. We see Sesto as he is captured and tortured - we are very close to his face, see the pain, experience how he wants to be alone but is dragged into the public eye as the guilty party. And, of course, it is also a reference to the paparazzi, who feast their sensationalist eyes on him. Not a pleasant sight, by the way, but it's not supposed to be a fashionable, pleasing video, it's supposed to get under your skin. I'm still working on this sequence at the moment and I don't even know whether I'm going to discard it. I'm giving myself the freedom to change or omit individual elements, perhaps even at the last minute.

No, and that's what makes art for me! You have to make things uncomfortable. You have to question things. Otherwise you fall into a routine and start to feel good about yourself. That's why I want to keep decisions open until the last moment, even though I know, of course, that it's difficult for some people in production because they are used to other ways of working. But the bottom line is that this gives us a great deal of creativity and freedom. And that's what matters to me. Whether a person stands on stage left or right is not a big question for me, it can be one way one day and another the next. The key thing is that the inner stance of a character is well worked out.

When I look at a painting by Velázquez, I become Velázquez and even see the mistakes he made. When I stage an opera by Mozart, I become Mozart and have the feeling that I know him best, precisely because I am completely him. This goes so far that I tell others, who are much more musically qualified than I am, about it. I would therefore be quite prepared to make small changes to the score and delete individual chords. Not out of wantonness, but because I am convinced that Mozart would do the same today, in our situation. Many people think: the more Mozart, the better. I question this attitude. Because it's not about the quantity, it's about the content. It's always about the content!