Moving from the hermeneutic to the performative

The starting point of the project is the current practice in opera: An analysis of opera productions in 2011 in cities including Graz, Berlin, Warsaw and Paris quickly reveals similarities in how today`s opera directors approach the standard opera repertoire. The usual ways of interpreting a work appear to be defined by the following characteristics: 1. a radical, deconstructive way of thinking 2. an updating of old material 3. a setting based on powerful images. One way of characterising current practice could be the following: All these approaches are dominated by a hermeneutic approach which assumes that a dramaturgic vision must run through a work and that the director must make clear how his/her work is to be interpreted. This dramaturgic vision, rather than the event of the performance, is the focus. The central question of our research project is whether another artistic approach is conceivable outside this established interpretive, hermeneutic framework. We will explore this question experimentally under the aegis of "research in arts". Three teams of young artist, co-operating with experienced peers, will develop different approaches to the opera "Così fan tutte" by Mozart, - a repertoire piece that is often discussed in its many "director`s theatre" ("Regie-Theater") interpretations. Their ideas will be realised first in two experimental working phases; then in three parallel productions, staged in dimensions that correspond to those of a smaller opera house. Intermediate working meetings, dedicated to the analysis of the current state and to reflection on the developing research results frame the artistic experiments. The research project will be based on the latest academic research on performativity as well as musicological work. It will consider from an artistic view-point theoretical questions often treated in an academic context, bringing musicological findings to the stage. The project will develop these questions for the operatic stage and allow them to take shape. Innovative staging strategies will be devised which will allow us to explore, utilize and expand the various possibilities of performativity in the context of opera. Staging will be understood as an open process. Rather than taking an unambiguous, predetermined idea, the focus of the performance should be a multidimensional event which can be interpreted in different ways. By developing new staging strategies, we will take a fresh look at opera`s standard repertory, examining how new insights can be generated which are relevant for the present-day. Future prospects will aim to gain a new societal relevance for the genre and by doing so a new public for the opera.

The starting point of the project is the current practice in opera: An analysis of opera productions in 2011 in cities including Graz, Berlin, Warsaw and Paris quickly reveals similarities in how today's opera directors approach the standard opera repertoire. The usual ways of interpreting a work appear to be defined by the following characteristics: 1. a radical, deconstructive way of thinking 2. an updating of old material 3. a setting based on powerful images. One way of characterizing current practice could be the following: All these approaches are dominated by a hermeneutic approach which assumes that a dramaturgic vision must run through a work and that the director must make clear how his/her work is to be interpreted. This dramaturgic vision, rather than the event of the performance, is the focus.The central question of our research project is whether another artistic approach is conceivable outside this established interpretive, hermeneutic framework. We will explore this question experimentally under the aegis of research in arts". Three teams of young artist, co-operating with experienced peers, will develop different approaches to the opera "COSI fan tutte" by Mozart, - a repertoire piece that is often discussed in its many director's theatre" (IiRegie-Theater") interpretations. Their ideas will be realized first in two experimental working phases; then in three parallel productions, staged in dimensions that correspond to those of a smaller opera house.Intermediate working meetings, dedicated to the analysis of the current state and to reflection on the developing research results frame the artistic experiments.The research project will be based on the latest academic research on performativity as well as musicological work. It will consider from an artistic view-point theoretical questions often treated in an academic context, bringing musicological findings to the stage. The project will develop these questions for the operatic stage and allow them to take shape. Innovative staging strategies will be devised which will allow us to explore, utilize and expand the various possibilities of performativity in the context of opera. Staging will be understood as an open process. Rather than taking an unambiguous, predetermined idea, the focus of the performance should be a multidimensional event which can be interpreted in different ways. By developing new staging strategies, we will take a fresh look at opera's standard repertory, examining how new insights can be generated which are relevant for the present-day.Future prospects will aim to gain a new societal relevance for the genre and by doing so a new public for the opera.