Andreas Berger, composition/ soundconcept
Chris Haring, artistic director/ choreography
Stefan Grissemann, text
Thomas Jelinek, Licht Design/ scenography

Liquid Loft
Corali Benard, dance/ choreography
Jackson Carroll, dance/ choreography
Cristina Commisso, dance/ choreography
Verena Herterich, dance/ choreography
Livia Khazanehdari, dance/ choreography
Katharina Meves, dance/ choreography
François-Eloi Lavignac, dance/ choreography
Dante Murillo, dance/ choreography
Ida Osten, dance/ choreography
Hannah Timbrell, dance/ choreography

Valentina Diaz, social media
Roman Harrer, stage management
Cornelia Lehner, company management
Stefan Röhrle, costume
Judith Thaler, production

PHACE
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano / keyboard
Roland Schueler, cello
Walter Seebacher, clarinette(s)

Reinhard Fuchs, artistic director
Markus Bruckner, produktion
Michael Eder, PR & social media

a feverish journey into darkness, where sound, bodies, and objects blend into unstable hybrids: Dido’s Lamento sinks chromatically downward, breaking apart into glissandi, pizzicati, and bottleneck cries. Memories flare like strobes, light becomes both narcotic and intoxication – a club, a grave, a stage of shadows. Voices, bodies, samples, bursts of rock, piano crashes, field recordings: everything shatters, everything starts again. A tribute, a distortion, a transformation – wild, sarcastic, intimate. Music theater as a burning mine, as a frozen glacier, as a lament tearing itself apart.

Beyond familiar models of opera, coal mine birds (a postscript to the ImPulsTanz Festival) presents itself as music theater: a choreography for ten performers and five musicians, reimagining ballroom encounters in strange, fragmented ways, with the audience entering a stage-within-the-stage, drawn directly into the surrounding scene. Six contemporary works are performed live – by Simon Steen Andersen, Alessandro Baticci, Jérôme Combier, François Sarhan, Agata Zubel and Andreas Berger – music that reinterprets the past to cast forward into the future. It becomes an installative dance evening, a ghostly variation on the ball, where gestures against loneliness are staged, pushing toward intensity, ecstasy, dissolution. Bodies and objects become hybrids, forming unexpectedly only to fall apart again – like a thought flashing across synapses, like a fleeting memory, like a utopia too fragile to last.

More at Liquid Loft.

PROGRAMM

Simon Steen-Andersen
Queen of the Night  for voice solo (from “Inszenierte Nacht”, 2013)

François Sarhan
Wyatt for keyboard, double bass, vibraphone (N° 11 from “Hell”, 2005)

Agata Zubel
Shades of Ice for clarinet, cello and electronics (2011)

Alessandro Baticci
Luminal Mirage for ensemble and electronics (2025)
in a hybrid version with live and prerecorded instruments

Jerome Combier
Laid in earth for piano solo and electronics (2019)
in an augmented arrangement for piano, clarinet, cello, double bass and electronics (Reinhard Fuchs)

and music by Andreas Berger

With kind support by IMPULSTANZ.

Tomasz Skweres, Musik
Kristine Tornquist, Text

Johann Leutgeb, Heribert Büxenstein
Horst Lamnek, Hermann Hagedorn
John Sweeney, Hartmuth Sägebarth
Juliette Mars, Stella Sorell
Ewelina Jurga, Mira, Pflegerin
Vladimir Cabak, Mirko, Pfleger
Maida Karišik, Regine
Schellpfeffer, Direktorin
Dieter Kschwendt-Michel, Maximilian
Notnagel, Hausarzt
Selina Rosa Nowak, Geist

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, Flöte
Reinhold Brunner, Klarinette
Michael Krenn, Saxophon
Jason Pfiester, Horn
Stefan Obmann, Posaune
Maria Mogas, Akkordeon
Hannes Schöggl, Schlagwerk 1
Igor Gross, Schlagwerk 2
Tina Zerdin, Harfe
Anna Lindenbaum, Violine
Sophia Goidinger-Koch, Viola
Barbara Riccabona, Violoncello
Maximilian Ölz, Kontrabass
Reinhard Fuchs, Leitung
Markus Bruckner, Produktion PHACE
Michael Eder, Assistenz

Antanina Kalechyts, Musikalische Leitung
Kristine Tornquist, Regie
Michael Liszt / Sandkastensyndikat, Bühne
Nora Scheidl, Kostüm
Luisa Liebe, Maske
Jan Maria Lukas, Licht
Ada Günther, Regieassistenz und Inspizienz
NN, Korrepetition und Studienleitung
Selina Rosa Nowak, Produktionsasistenz
Norbert Gsellmann, Gastronomische Betreuung
Bruno Kolak und Team, Transport und Aufbau
Zine Tornquist, Grafik
Barbara Vanura, PR und Presse sirene
Sylvia Marz-Wagner, PR und
Presse Wien Modern
Andreas Friess, Julia Várkonyi, Fotographie
Peter Landsmann, Filmmitschnitt
Paul Landsmann, Filmmitschnitt
Theresa Kronsteiner, Lea Lux,Kamera
Susanne Schicker, Jugendstiltheater
Bernhard Günther, Wien Modern
Tanita Müller, Wien Modern
Sandro Nicolussi, Wien Modern
Jury Everhartz, Produktionsleitung

The Abendsonne retirement home represents the end of life for its elderly residents, a lot of work for the young nursing staff, and a business model with room for improvement for the management. Unrest arises when Büxenstein is diagnosed with cancer. As a retired doctor, he knows he has little time left. After a conversation with Stella, who is knowledgeable in metaphysical matters, the idea of initiating his reincarnation solidifies in his mind. After some doubt, his friends Hagedorn and Sägebarth are willing to help him. According to Stella’s recipe, all you need is a young couple in love – so they plan to match up the young nurse Mira and the new nurse Mirko. Büxenstein writes his will, in which he leaves Mira and her future child – that is, himself – with a generous endowment. And indeed, the two young people fall in love. Stella isn’t privy to the plans, but she senses impending doom and worries. When the lovers are finally lured into their night of love by the old men, their plan seems to be working. Things change at the last moment… A tragicomedy of survival by Tomasz Skweres (music) and Kristine Tornquist (libretto and direction), staged for the first time by the sirene Opera Theater.

More at sirene.at

François-Pierre Descamps, conductor
Anna Clare Hauf, voice

Serapions Ensemble
Elvis Alieva,
Ana Grigalashvili,
Zsuzsanna Enikö Iszlay,
Julio Cesar Manfugas Foster,
Selina Rosa Nowak (guest),
Gerwich Rozmyslowski,
Mercedes Miriam Vargas Iribar,
Miriam Mercedes Vargas Iribar

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Yukiko Krenn, saxophone
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Iosua Dascal, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Anna Lindenbaum, violin
Sophia Giodinger-Koch, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass

Christof Dienz, composition
Kristine Tornquist, director
Florian Bogner, sound
Xaver Dienz, sound
Marlen Duken, props
Michael Liszt, stage
Jakob Scheid, music automatons & robots
Roman Spiess, Markus Liszt, puppets
Jan Maria Lukas, lights & technics
Germano Milite, sound & video
Jury Everhartz, production

Christof Dienz
Die Puppe. Ein Operoid (2024, UA)
Production sirene Operntheater | cooperation Wien Modern

The artificial human – the doll, the figure, the android – reveals three dreams of humanity: creative power, perfection, immortality.

Since the Stone Age, the likenesses have accompanied their creators and served them as companions, slaves and gods to overcome the inadequacies of organic existence. The dolls of antiquity are animated by imagination, their aura and power lie in the imagination of the doll creators and the viewers. Just two points in a circle are enough to create the illusion of a face, a simply carved piece of wood already marks a figure. Doll creators of the Enlightenment, on the other hand, use complicated mechanics as a drive to obtain a tireless, obedient and deceptively real improvement on the purely natural model. Following the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, the aim is to fertilize the lifeless artefacts with the spark of life. Where reality and appearance come so close together, the dolls appear alive, but the person himself seems like an automaton. We are puppets, pulled on a wire by unknown forces, Büchner was horrified, nothing, nothing is ourselves.
The Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term Uncanny Valley in the 1970s: Since then, the fascination has been accompanied by a shudder when the artificial approaches the natural – to the point where a perfect android is considered equal and believed to be alive.
Not only human bodies, but also their voices, their senses and ultimately even their minds are to be artificially recreated. In the data centers of AI projects, the imitative drive is running at full electronic speed. The self-deception succeeds – almost! The technical homunculi are still a long way from the complexity of organic life, no AI has yet passed the Turing test, but the goal is clear: the artificial doppelgangers should not only ape their creators, but be intellectually equal to them, even superior to them – independent creatures, a role model to the role models.
In the dark, however, a scarecrow and a little imagination are still enough to give the material a spirit.

Christof Dienz’s music for the eleven musicians of the PHACE ensemble, Anna Hauf as a wordless voice and the automatic drummer by Jakob Scheid reflects the strangeness in the similarity. Kristine Tornquist and the eight actors of the Serapions Theater illuminate the mysterious relationship between people and their puppets in a silent sequence of scenes.

sirene Operntheater

Hyun-Jung Berger, violoncello
Paula Jeckstadt, Mathilde 1 (soprano)
Annette Schönmüller, Mathilde 2 (mezzosoprano)
May Garzon, Elsa Bienenfeld (actor)
Rupert Lehofer, Arnold 2 (actor)
Valentin Postlmayer, Arnold 1 (actor)

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Igor Gross, percussion
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano & keyboard
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass

Georg Klüver-Pfandtner, costumes
Martin Laumann, sound
Ulli Napp, technical director
Bernhard Günther, dramaturgy
Markus Oppenländer, technics littlebit
Eva Maria Müller, coordination littlebit
Manos Tsangaris, staging

Manos Tsangaris
Schönes Wetter in Gmunden. six public private performances (2023–2024 UA) – 60′
Comissioned by Wien Modern in the context of Schönberg 150

When Manos Tsangaris composes, not only sounds and words find new forms, but also spaces and audiences. The composer, percussionist, artist and poet, born in Düsseldorf in 1956 (incidentally, he has just been awarded the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize and elected President of the Berlin Academy of Arts), is summarizing his engagement with Arnold Schönberg in a large, new, and in a certain sense, walk-in group of works at Wien Modern.

Schönes Wetter in Gmunden (19th–21st November), a series of six “public private performances” at various locations in the Brahms Hall for nine listeners each, leads into one of the most dramatic and momentous episodes in Schönberg’s biography at the Musikverein.

Miameide

21./23./25./26./27./28./30. Sep. 2023
sirene Operntheater
Jugendstiltheater am Steinhof

ARTISTS
Julia Purgina, Musik
Kristine Tornquist, Text
Julia Libiseller, Trickfilm

Johanna Krokovay, Mia
Romana Amerling, Sachbearbeiterin
Ingrid Haselberger, Arbeitslose, Gärtnerin
Benjamin Boresch, Sachbearbeiterin,
Blumenhändlerin
Vladimir Cabak, Arbeitsloser, Gärtner
Johann Leutgeb, Sachbearbeiterin, Kunde

Vokalensemble Momentum Vocal Music
Ekaterina Krasko, Sopran
Elisabeth Kirchner, Mezzosopran
Aleksandar Jovanovic, Countertenor
Simon Erasimus, Tenor und Leitung
Benjamin Harasko, Bassbariton

Ensemble PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, Flöte
Reinhold Brunner, Klarinette
Dominik Fuss, Trompete
Stefan Obmann, Posaune
Berndt Thurner, Percussion
Maria Chlebus, Percussion
Tina Žerdin, Harfe
Mathilde Hoursiangou, Klavier/Celesta
Maria Mogas Gensana, Akkordeon
Thomas Wally, Violine
Jacobo Hernández Enríquez, Violine
Anna Lindenbaum, Viola
Barbara Riccabona, Violoncello
Stefanie Prenn, Violoncello
Manuel Schager, Violoncello
Michael Seifreid, Kontrabass

Antanina Kalechyts, Musikalische Leitung
Kristine Tornquist, Regie
Michael Liszt, Markus Liszt, Je Jesch, Bühne
Maria Mitterlehner, Kostüm
Klara Leschanz, Maske
Paul Eisemann, Licht
Germano Milite, Animation und
Videotechnik

Petra Giacalone, Korrepetition und
Studienleitung
Selina Umundum, Assistenz und Inspizienz
Anna Skrepek, Hospitanz und Übertitel

Zine Tornquist, Grafik
Barbara Vanura, PR und Presse
Barbara Palffy, Fotographie
Peter Landsmann, Paul Landsmann,
Filmmitschnitt
Martin Horváth, Produktionsleitung
Jury Everhartz, Produktion

Mia can understand the language of plants. But there is no use for this ability in the world. At the employment office, she is placed in jobs where plants are traded like objects. But she is no good either as a flower seller or in the large gardening business, wherever she goes, she always understands too much about the needs of the plants. When she realizes that there is no longer room in the human world for those who can hear, she flees into another existence. Even if we cannot hear them, the silent sisters are not mute. Their language is growth, their ceaseless unfolding, multiplying, branching and differentiating is their narrative of overcoming entropy.

An opera about plants. Plants are not opera characters. You can only approach them through metaphors. First of all, in the intuitive way in which music can represent a language of plants. Julia Purgina has written lively and fragile music that makes botanical structures and the fractal growth of plants tangible. The language of plants. Even the human voice, which is used without words for the plants, can represent something “outrageous”, non-human. In her stop motion film, Julia Libiseller shows the tireless and surreal movements of leaves, blossoms and roots in their eternal search for light and water.

More…

Miameide – opera in 8 scenes with a prologue
With text by Kristine Tornquist, music by Julia Purgina and stop motion film by Julia Libiseller

 A sirene-production in cooperation with PHACE and Momentum Vocal Music

Canti di Prigionia

Wiener Festwochen 2023
24./25./26. Mai 2023
20:30
Jugendstiltheater am Steinhof

Ein Auftragswerk und eine Produktion von Wiener Festwochen Partner Provincija (Svetvinčenat) Residency Centar mladih Ribnjak (Zagreb), Zagrebačko kazalište mladih (Zagreb) Mit Unterstützung von Ministarstvo kulture i medija (Kroatien)

Konzept Matija Ferlin, Goran Ferčec
Regie, Choreografie, Kostüme Matija Ferlin
Dramaturgie, Text Goran Ferčec
Mit Musik von Luigi Dallapiccola

Cantando Admont
Sopran Elina Viluma-Helling, Friederike Kühl,
Mara Maria Möritz, Anna Piroli
Mezzosopran Cosima Büsing, Elisabeth Irvine
Alt Cornelia Sonnleithner, Justina Vaitkute
Tenor Bernd Lambauer, Martin Mairinger,
Hugo Paulsson-Stove, Angelo Testori
Bass Matias Bocchio, Christoph Brunner,
Karl Söderström, Ulfried Staber

PHACE
Klavier Mathilde Hoursiangou, Jan Satler
Harfe Tina Zerdin, Marie Zimmer
Schlagwerk Maria Chlebus, Harry Demmer,
Igor Gross, Christian Pollheimer,
Hannes Schöggl, Berndt Thurner

Bühne Mauricio Ferlin
Regieassistenz Koraljka Begović
Kostümassistenz Desanka Janković
Mit Dušan Gojić, Rok Juričić, Lana Meniga,
Tanja Smoje, Dijana Vidušin
Produktionsleitung Silvija Stipanov

The composer Luigi Dallapiccola was born in 1904 in Istria. During World War I, he was interned in Graz along with his family and later went on to study piano in Florence and establish the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School in Italy. Between 1938 and 1941, under the impact of Mussolini’s tyranny, he composed his three Songs from Captivity. Based on a prayer from Stefan Zweig’s Maria Stuart, an excerpt from The Consola­tion of Philosophy by Boethius and the psalm In Te Domine Speravi by Girolamo Savonarola, Dallapiccola created an atonal cry against fascism that transcends time.
In a collaboration with the vocal ensemble Cantando Admont, the ten musicians of PHACE and five actors, the Croatian choreographer Matija Ferlin and the dramaturge and writer Goran Ferčec present a stage production of the three songs as three scenic images. And, just as they did in 2021 with Sad Sam Matthäus, they are adopting and adapting a first-person autofiction approach to the plot and the narrative. An evening dedicated to the human need for freedom.

Luigi Dallapiccola
Canti di Prigionia für Chor, 2 Klaviere, 2 Harfen, 6 Schlagzeuger (1938-1941)

Preghiera di Maria Stuarda
O Domine Deus! speravi in Te.
O care mi Jesu! nunc libera me
In dura catena, in misera poena, desidero Te.
Languendo, gemendo et genu flectendo,
Adoro, imploro, ut liberes me.

Invocazione di Boezio
Felix qui potuit boni
fontem visere lucidum,
felix qui potuit gravis
terrae solvere vincula.

Congedo di Girolamo Savonarola
Premat mundus, insurgat hostes, nihil timeo
Quoniam in Te Domine speravi,
Quoniam Tu es spes mea,
Quoniam Tu altissimime posuisti refugium tuum.