...über Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel
Music drama in one act
by Sven-Åke Johansson and Alexander von Schlippenbach
Shelley Hirsch: vocals
Sven-Åke Johansson: vocals, accordion
Anne LeBaron: harp
Wolfgang Fuchs: sopranino-saxophone, clarinet
Dietmar Diesner: soprano saxophone (Hebbel-Theater)
Tristan Honsinger: cello
Alexander von Schlippenbach: piano
Paul Lovens: percussion, drums
Regina Baumgart: dance
Director: Fritz Rahman (Berlin) Stage design: Claudia Doderer, Libretto: Sven-Åke Johansson
Premiere: 8. November 1986 Stuttgarter Staatsoper
further Performances: Stadttheater Gütersloh 1986, Hebbel-Theater Berlin 1994
The stars in the sky fade when the big trailer is hidden. It's the same way in the construction firm. When the construction trailer doesn't appear, then one can't sense anything "elevating". These days people dig around a lot, around the corner, in front of the corner, even on the corner – what are they looking for? A lot of these diggers spend a large part of their life, rain or snow, in phases of costume-change in the so-called construction trailers, which are usually set up in the immediate vicinity of the construction sites, construction trailers of the firm Bilfinger & Berger, Bartel-Bau, Blobert & Hofgrefe, and so on. They unswervingly accompany machines – in the cities, blocked off areas, detour zones – of all colors and sizes with saw teeth or lever mechanisms: a murky, never-ending circle. Alas, here stands the circle as starting position for singers, instrumentalists, and dancers in order to create a group of familiar faces between the objects of the most everyday relations, between construction machines and musical instrument ? – optically. Sound and noise are different: the real relation in modern music to involuntarily recorded noises of the street, to different mechanisms of machine-movement, automobiles, etc.? Sven-Åke Johansson (program booklet Hebbel-Theater 1994)
Discography: Doppel LP FMP-S 20/21
Radio feature by Thomas Groetz für Deutschlandradio, Berlin 2007
"The red bricks"