How relevant to our system is the production machinery of classical music? Has the corona lockdown, the silence of the concert halls, the sudden end of the restless concert business given us an insight into what place classical music actually has in our social, political, Central European system? 

The Salzburg Festival has been and continues to be described as a „Weltkunstzentrum auf österreichischem Boden“ (world centre of the arts on Austrian soil). We have tried to open another "centre", a kind of "factory", in which a group of dancers and musicians question this and possibly create a new construction of this world art. Using dance and improvised contemporary music elements, they pose the question: what remains of the music and the pleasure of listening to music when more and more familiar parameters, such as the glass of champagne during the interval, the dress code and the program booklets, are no longer applicable and even the sounds become noises? And who are the people who actually play classical instruments? 

Musicians can be heard off-screen describing what goes on inside them before they play the first note, how they feel, what is "systemically relevant" for them and what they think about questionable sponsorship. 

In between, videos show the wardrobe mistress and former dressmaker of the Festspielhaus costume department, Erika Kronreif, talking about her work and observations "behind the scenes" and her encounters with the audience. 

The performance has so far been rehearsed and shown in the vacant old "Trachtenfabrik", an abandoned warehouse in Salzburg that provided a very impressive and suitable setting for this theme. 

 

A performance by Ruth Kemna 

with Agnes Luck Galpin, Andrea Givanovitch, Anna Lindenbaum, Jadwiga Mordarska, Ruth Kemna (performance) Erika Kronreif (in video)

Alexandre Baldo, Oscar Jockel, Jonathan Ponet, Teresa Raff, Julia Rinderle, Jonathan Ponet (in interviews)

 

Performed: 19-21 July 2020 - Trachtenfabrik - Salzburg, Austria