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JEANNE D’ARC AU BÛCHER

BY ARTHUR HONEGGER, LIBRETTO BY PAUL CLAUDEL, IN THE GERMAN TRANSLATION BY HANS REINHART

Witch and Virgin, Heretic and Saint, Maiden and War Heroine – Joan of Arc continues to fascinate to this day. Driven by a fanatical belief that she is called by supernatural voices, Joan leads the French army to victory in the Hundred Years' War. However, she is later captured, interrogated, and burned at the stake. Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher / Johanna auf dem Scheiterhaufen takes place precisely in the final moments of Joan of Arc's life. In the face of her death, the heavenly voices that once called her, along with the accusatory voices of the earth, rush in upon her – it is a dream journey through her memories and her life. The story of Joan of Arc, as well as the figure that has been received over the centuries, defies clarity and linearity; it remains resistant, opaque, and provocative. Who is Joan of Arc? What does she fight for? For France, for God, for herself? Joan of Arc crosses boundaries and causes power systems to collapse; yet she is condemned, murdered, venerated, and instrumentalized by the very same powers.

Singers:

Mário Ícaro

Palina Vereti

Hyunwoo Park 

Anna Senda Pimentel 

Rosa Amata Lüttschwager

 

Performers:

Nia Sokolović (Jeanne D’Arc) 

Christine Korfant (Bruder Dominik) 

 

Lina Helfrich, Gustav Bloéb, Francis (Luca Mbiene), Willi Mend and Tanja Tepper 

 

Piano:

Dulguun Chinchuluun

Sergi Pacheco Portalés

 

Musical Direction: Hansjörg Albrecht
Direction: Lennart Nielsen
Stage and Light: Janik Müller
Costume: Julian Phillip Hirsch, Lisa Jaschke
Dramaturgy: Leonard Kaiser

Video: Yihan Zhang

Makeup:  Sabina Lorenz, Katharina Kunstin, Velvet and the Creatures

Stage Management: Sangjin Han 

Subtitles: Maike Graf

Assistant Director: Lucy Winter 

Set Design Assistant: Luléa Joachim-Tran

Costume Design Assistant: Jila Prinzhorn, Leonie Sophie Kaiser

premiere:

07.09.2024

Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher was a graduation project at the Theaterakademie Hamburg in in cooperation with the Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Chor Hamburg as part of the junges forum Musik + Theater series.

The escalation of intensity was utterly convincing. The transgressions provoked by Jeanne, her journey from peasant's daughter to military leader, are crafted by the director with subtlety, without compromising clarity. Moreover, he places compelling emphasis on the aspect of hubris, which is also integral to Jeanne's character. (…) This hour-and-a-half piece could not have been staged more faithfully to its original form.

Helbig, G. (2024, October). Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher. Opernglas, 10/2024, 47-48.

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