The Swan Song Operetta

The Swan Song Operetta was developed and performed over eight years. This summer it will flower into its unabridged self in the nGbK exhibition space. All four acts of the operetta will be rehearsed publicly—as well as performed, exhibited and reflected. It’s about training coloratura against injustice and writing scores for solidarity. During the opening hours the exhibition space is fully accessible to the public, visitors are invited to join workshops and rehearsals for choir as well as sit at the bar and find out about the history and progress of the Swan Song.

Hannah loves Hilaria… against an iridescent backdrop of ferns, otherness, gossip, opulence, poverty, renovation, eviction, demos, trials, feuds and friendship.

The Swan Song is the story of two families; the bar and the gallery, and their struggle to survive great economic changes spurred by gentrification and “innovation,” forcing them to test their commitment to their community and their common survival. Collaboration and independent ambitions clash! Love crosses boundaries of ideology and sidewalks. Plants explode all over a city grappling with urban glorification and decay. The Swan Song asks, is friendship the best insurance? Is art the right medicine? And it answers with a moody melody… and a grand exit!

The score follows the classical operetta structure while integrating elements of pop music, sound installation and improvised music.
 
Please find the complete program here.

A songbook will be published by nGbK. ISBN: 9783938515693

With Gili BenZvi, Alexandre Chardaire, Martin Ertl, Ulrike Ertl, Tina-Marie Friedrich, Ulrike Fruhtrunk, Angela Grasser, Anne Harnischmacher, Katrin Heidorn, Pip Hill, Irene Hoppenberg, Mirjam Junker, Peter Kisur, Gerda Klingenböck, Peter Kozek, Christine Kriegerowski, Nadja Kurtz, Hila Lahav, Sabine Marte, Liv Rolf Mertz, Eduard Mont de Palol, Keren Ida Nathan, Off, Johanna Olausson, David Permantier/Kunstwerkstatt der Lebenshilfe, gblissproductions, rasch und sch’nell, Juli Saragosa, Skadi Sarnoch, Anna Schmidt, Team of Love, Viola Vivilley, Ruth Waldeyer, Maya Weinberg, The Wedding Band, William Locke Wheeler, Wilder than Some Productions, Hildegard Wittur, Sabe Wunsch a.o.
 

The Swan Song is an Israeli/German/Austrian co-production.

nGbK-Projectgroup: Claudia Burbaum, Martin Ertl, Tina-Marie Friedrich, Christine Kriegerowski, Keren Ida Nathan
 

Also currently on show as part of the Art in the Underground project by nGbK:

until October 31
Namibia Today by Laura Horelli, Underground station Schillingstraße, U5, platform
Laboratorium der Solidarität by Saskia Köbschall & Claude Gomis, Underground station Kaulsdorf-Nord, U5, footbridge
A Migrant’s Journey by Elizabeth Wood, Underground station Cottbusser Platz, U5, platform