Die Insel (“The Island”) is a multi-sensory music-theater piece where different modalities of perception; music, spoken word, sign language, movement, light, video, vibration are intertwined and tactility becomes the common ground. As an ensemble of blind, hearing, sighted and deaf artists, [in]operabilities is an artistic research project in contemporary music theatre that links the art form of opera with the question of its accessibility. “In the canon and cosmos of opera, artists and interdisciplinary researchers search for forms of multisensory music-making and encounter – for collective and individual “opera-abilities”.
In the summer of 2022 I got approached by the collective [in]operabilities to collaborate towards a theater piece centering touch as a language for a mixed audience of short of hearing, visually impaired as well as of “abled” bodies. The project involved two phases of research (Labor) and the creation of Die Insel in the winter of 2023-2024, at theater Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany.
Die Insel departs from the existing libretto of Rinaldo and Alcina, opera composed by a blind woman, Maria Theresia von Paradis, in the 18th century. As a blind musician, she caused a sensation 300 years ago. The music score however has been lost. Based on the surviving libretto, this ensemble of blind, hearing, sighted and d/Deaf artists have created their own composition of Rinaldo and Alcina using sound, vibration, gestures, light, touch, and sung audio descriptions, developing multi-sensory forms of musical experience. The piece premiered on March 13th at Kampnagel, Hamburg. It goes on to Radialsystem, Berlin (sold out) and will tour again in 2025, through Basel and Zürich.
Die Insel is spoken in German, as well as in German sign language, with sung audio descriptions and subtitles. At the beginning of all performances, there is an introduction by the artists with an integrated touch tour as a sensory presentation of the stage for blind and visually impaired audiences.
Direction & Libretto Benjamin van Bebber • Musical direction Leo Hofmann • Performance & co-development Athena Lange, Sophia Neises, Marie Sophie Richter and Leo Hofmann • Light & space Ladislav Zajac • Objects & sounding costumes Ludmila Rodrigues • Dramaturgy Franziska Henschel • Co-direction Jeanne Charlotte Vogt • Sign language dramaturgy Susanne Tod • Access dramaturgy & audio description Caro Jüngst & Naomi Sanfo • Assistant director Emil Leske • Assistant costume & objects Sofia Chionidou • Sign language interpreters Christina Müller, Ronja Hollenbach, Nicole Ostrycharczyk, and Marie-Wilhelmine Schaper
Ludmila Rodrigues thanks Benjamin, Leo, Jeanne, Franz, Laci and the whole creative team; thanks also to the Costume Company and Fabulous St Pauli fablab.
[in]operabilities is supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien and by the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Behörde für Kultur und Medien. “Die Insel” is a co-production with Kampnagel and is also supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia, the City of Zurich, the Landis & Gyr Foundation, the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, the Rusch Foundation, the Schweizer Interpretenstiftung and the Rudolf Augstein Foundation.
Read more on inoperabilities.net. Photos by Robin Hinsch.
