Eleonore Marguerre

Scientists discover a creature frozen into the ice fields of the North Pole. As it is gradually brought back to life in a bold experiment, the creature experiences flashbacks of its painful past with its creator. Two hundred years after its publication, American composer Mark Grey takes Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking science fiction novel as the basis for his first full-length opera. Directed by Àlex Ollé of the theatrical group La Fura dels Baus, this modern interpretation warns of the growing gulf between our capacity to invent and our inability to comprehend.

Director and visual artist Romeo Castellucci will tackle this mythological material and project his visions over the course of the journey performed by the characters, representing concretely such key elements of the Ring as water and fire. This symbolic reading will concentrate on essential aspects of the libretto, inviting spectators to forge their own interpretation. Avoiding irony, Castellucci will treat each protagonist with equal importance, highlighting the aspirations, emotions and thoughts that animate them: absolute love and the conquest of power.

"Die tote Stadt" is a psychologically layered drama with Hitchcock-like features, about Paul who, after the loss of his beloved Marie, slowly but surely becomes entangled in a dream world of obsessions and delusions. This impressive opera is a passionate as well as a surrealistic plea for mourning. "He who cannot live with death has no life."