On 17 September, the contemporary opera laboratory Opera Aperta will open a new season at Neuköllner Oper (Berlin) with the world premiere of VOX HUMANA. Ein Singspiel. The performances will run for a month.
The production was created at the invitation of Neuköllner Oper, Opera Aperta reports.
According to the libretto, Opera Aperta’s performers travel from Kyiv to Berlin’s Neukölln district to open the theatre season at the local opera house. As a gesture of gratitude to Germany for financial support and air defence systems, the Ukrainians decide to offer the country the best they have — their voices — promising to prepare Germany for victory at Eurovision 2027 by developing a radical political hyperpop project.
Travelling by the Kyiv–Berlin bus, they slowly fall into a time trap, finding themselves in 1933 — in the hall of a Berlin Jewish cabaret, where the last meeting took place between singing teacher and psychotherapist Alfred Wolfsohn and artist Charlotte Salomon.
The opera’s text and composition are being developed by Illia Razumeiko and Roman Hryhoriv. Dramaturgy is by Marichka Shtyrbulova and Dennis Depta. The electronic music is by Valeriya Vynohradova.
Neuköllner Oper is an independent music theatre in Germany, a venue for creating avant-garde music theatre and cross-genre work, known in Germany and internationally for bold experiments, a departure from classical operatic canons, and an immediate response to today’s acute socio-political challenges.
In Ukraine, the contemporary opera laboratory Opera Aperta works to find new theatrical forms and to develop contemporary theatrical language and ways of thinking. It focuses on reflecting on politics, art history, ecology, and theatre. Founded by the composer duo Roman Hryhoriv and Illya Razumeyko, the Opera Aperta opera laboratory develops contemporary opera and theatre at leading venues in Europe and the United States.