Die Wilde Jagd ( the Wild Hunt) is an evening long intimate new cross-genre Music theatre production In collaboration with Maximilian Erhardt, Ensemble Société Lunaire and Actress Sally Jaber. An evening long intimate new cross-genre Music theatre production based upon German ghosts stories of 18th Century accompanied by live music of the same period.
The time between Christmas and Epiphany is known as the ‘Rauhnächte’. According to legend, on these days the gate to the spirit world is open, so that the souls of the deceased have access to the earth. A special feature is the ‘Wild Hunt’, a procession of spirits that travels through the air with howls and screams. Numerous fairy tales and myths deal with this theme and become the basis of the innovative music theatre format DIE WILDE JAGD.
The gambist Juliane Laake and the harpist Maximilian Ehrhardt play compositions of the late 18th century and the actress Sally Jaber recites ghost stories tales dealing with the wild hunt.
Music and texts not only alternate, but also flow into each other with subtle changes in atmosphere, projections, light and shadow.
The horror stories used – supported by music from a time of social upheaval – deal with subconscious fears and social isolation.
Music
The duo Juliane Laake and Maximilian Ehrhardt, nominated for the International Classical Music Award and the German Record Critics’ Prize, choose works for viola da gamba and harp from the second half of the 18th century. These compositions, from the time of the ‘Sturm und Drang’ and the ‘Empfindsamkeit’, break away from the bombastic ornamental style of late Baroque music and describe – with seemingly the simplest means – very directly states of feeling and emotion. Laake and Ehrhardt play on copies of instruments from this period, which are ideal for the chamber music setting of ‘Wild Hunt’.
for the chamber music setting of the ‘Wild Hunt’. The works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Jean- Baptiste Krumpholtz, Franz-Xaver Hammer, Philippe-Jacques Meyer and Johann Ladislaus Dussek, among others, are coordinated with the poems and stories recited by Sally Jaber and interwoven with them so that they continue the narrative musically.
The music, however, not only serves to accompany and frame the spoken texts, but also directly creates its own visual worlds in the minds of the audience. The pathetic and urgent element of this music from a time of social upheaval fits perfectly with the fairy tales and stories that deal with restlessness and fear of the future.
02.-05.02.2023 4 Vorstellungen im Theater im Delphi
Team
Actress Sally Jaber
Harp and Musical Direction Maximilian Ehrhardt
Viola di Gambe Juliane Laake
Direction and scenography Martin Butler
Text Dramaturgy Astrid Clave
Produktion Saskia Veigel
Supported by the Berlin Senate, Deutsche Musikrad, and TAZ.
Martin Butler 