On June 5, Crescendo will be performed for the first time via live stream and will be available digitally worldwide for the following seven days. The premiere to an audience will take place on June 15 at the Mannheim Opera House.
The choreography of Crescendo was developed by Stephan Toss entirely from the spirit of the music, unveiling magical wonders of sound and dance. As a "crescendo", these will increase in power, volume, force and urgency, finally culminating in spectacular finale.
Crescendo showcases a dialogue between music and dance: musicians and dancers share the stage, scattered across a wide meadow landscape, connected to each other through the language of music. The core theme of the performance is the relation between nature and humans: the conversation between humans and nature and the ambivalence of this relationship - on the one hand they worship its beauty, on the other hand they plunder its resources.
John Corigliano's Conjurer forms the basis of the performance. It is structured by the timbre of the percussion: the first movement focuses on the wood section, xylophone and marimba; the second movement on metal instruments such as chimes and cymbals and the third movement concentrates on the skin instruments, as well as a string orchestra.
Materials by Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann) forms an individual contrast to Conjurer. The work reflects on phase transitions between solid, liquid and gaseous states of matter.
