MELENCOLIA

For many centuries, melancholy was interpreted in various and often contradictory ways. It has been regarded as a physical illness as well as a moment of contemplation, as a possibility of overcoming earthly suffering, and as a sister of ingenuity. The puzzling polyhedron in Albrecht Dürer’s famous copperplate engraving Melencolia I has become a symbol for the unsolvable amidst the human desire for salvation and the rational demystification of the world.

In MELENCOLIA by Muntendorf/Lobeck, Dürer’s polyhedron is found in a melancholic playground, in a place that seems lost to our hyper-stimulated fatigue societies and the new, colonized digital lifeworlds. In a liberated and playful yet strict way, the music theatre deals with stereotypes from the Renaissance, Romanticism, pop and kitsch, searching for the liberating melancholic mood.

14 instrumental soloists of the Ensemble Modern encounter virtual guests such as the Iranian Ney-Anban virtuoso Saeid Shanbehzadeh or their own digital twins in 3D audio landscapes. Artificial intelligences and synthetically cloned voices encounter digital visual worlds and bizarre parallel existences, an incessant stream of instrumental and electronic music leads the audience into familiar as well as surreal audio spaces.In the midst of our rationally demystified world, MELENCOLIA celebrates a musical show against the indifference of the universe.

3D Sound

In the specific use of 3D soundscape, the sound sources are not only freely positioned in space, but also sound phenomena in the field of acoustic or spatial perception are explored: What does a chord sound like from the inside? What happens with the acoustic space when the amplified sound detaches from the acoustic and becomes independent? How real can an absent soloist appear in 3D sound and play together with the present musicians?

AR-Application

An app is being developed for MELENCOLIA that enables interaction with the audience before and after the performance in public space (e.g. in front of the performance venue) using AR techniques on their own smartphone or tablet (download via QR codes).
The app is digital overture and epilogue at the same time: objects and characters from MELENCOLIA can be placed by the audience in augmented realities. Since different sound tracks are assigned to the objects, a composition for a six- to nine-voice cell phone choir can be heard at the same time.

PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA

The transdigital music theatre MELENCOLIA is awarded with a HONORARY MENTION in the category DIGITAL MUSICS & SOUND ART of the PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2023. Selected out of over 3.000 applications with the following jury statement:

“MELENCOLIA combines one of the oldest forms of human performance (theater) with one of the most emotional psychological states of humans (melancholia) and integrates various state-of-the-art technologies (AI, AR, live electronics, 3D audio, etc.). (…) A hugely complex project, MELENCOLIA demonstrates the potential of modern technologies in a traditional, specific environment, such as the opera, and proves that new artistic formats can thrive in these spaces.“

EXPERIENCE THE MELENCOLIA APP

MELENCOLIA app was developed as a prologue and epilogue for the music theater show MELENCOLIA by Muntendorf/Lobeck. If you have the app installed on your smartphone or tablet and use it to scan the MELENCOLIA QR codes, you can bring various AR creatures to life. If several people use the app at the same time and same place, they can form a melancholic cell phone chorus. The app is currently only available in the Apple Store and for Apple iOS.

Please find the APP here.

press

"(...) if you surrender to the overwhelming nature of [MELENCOLIA], you can sail happily, even amusedly, on the wings of melancholy."
Südkurier, 08/2022


“The music theater Ensemble Modern plays, sings, and screams in a fascinating music theater piece about melancholy. It is an absurd high-tech spectacle with a compelling human core.” (...) An experience in a fascinating, even thrilling way – as if one were diving into a jubilant, magnified biopsy of life itself.
(...) excellent live music and thrilling dramaturgy (...) but also a touching and stirring story."
NRC, 06/2022


“MELENCOLIA evokes awe at the flood of images, colors, sounds, videos, and artificial intelligences that Brigitta Muntendorf, along with Moritz Lobeck and her team, brings crashing onto the workshop stage.”
Schwäbische Kultur, 08/2022


 "It is touching to see that Muntendorf has interpreted the Ensemble Modern's commission in such a way that she does not simply deliver something that corresponds to the character of the collective, but that she engages with each individual musician.”
Vorarlberger Nachrichten, 08/2022


"At the end, when the people jumped up and the audience drowned in applause, we had multiplied the questions about the future a thousandfold!”
Cumhuryet, 08/2022


“Ensemble Modern play the hell out of Muntendorfs score, from its clashing, brash and strident moments to its garish spells of pure kitsch. MELENCOLIA is frenetic, funny, touching”
Financial Times, 08/2022


"This innovative project impressively illuminates the historical contradictions in interpreting and understanding the concept of melancholy by combining seemingly contradictory technologies and concepts. A hugely complex project, MELENCOLIA demonstrates the potential of modern technologies in a traditional, specific environment, such as the opera, and proves that new artistic formats can thrive in these spaces."
Prix Ars Electronica, 07/2023


"Composer Brigitta Muntendorf's MELENCOLIA is a trip of a lifetime. (...) A production that can seduce with such intelligence, artistic confidence, and imagination for a full seventy-five minutes is nothing short of brilliant."
Het Parool, 06/2024