Diggin’ Opera II – Project blog

Music theater by and for young people – made possible by the felicitas and werner egerland foundation

Photo that shows 2020 12 09 Diggin Opera 2 Startschuss.
January 2021 November 25, 2020 Green light for Diggin’ Opera II Who is participating in the project?

The music education project Diggin’ Opera II asks to what extent digital technologies can awaken young people’s enthusiasm for music theater. In addition to the core themes of participation, innovation, and digitalization, Diggin’ Opera II is all about European cooperation. Young people from Germany and Ireland will develop their own music theater production to be performed on the main Festspielhaus stage on April 25, 2021. The project is supported by the felicitas and werner egerland foundation.

Photo that shows 2021 01 20 Diggin Opera 1. © FSH
© FSH

January 2021

Face-to-face teaching has been canceled for the time being, but the rehearsals for Diggin’ Opera II in Offenburg and Limerick are still running successfully. The students of the Oken-Gymnasium meet for two school periods every week to work on music theater with their music teacher Rebecca Tüttelmann and drama teacher Rob Doornbos. Everything takes place online in group and individual rooms. Included are choir rehearsals, voice training, and tips for exercises that can be done on one’s own, and at the same time new plot elements for the work are developed.

Photo that shows 2021 01 20 Diggin Opera 4. © FSH
© FSH

Elsewhere, too, people are hard at work on Diggin’ Opera II. In Berlin, composer Micha Kaplan is writing the music for the piece and rehearsing it with the musicians. In frequent interchange with the students, the music is thus continually being developed for the April 25 performance. In Limerick, the pupils and their teacher Norma Lowney are focusing on developing a (virtual) stage set: photos, drawings, and painted images are created during the rehearsals, which can later become part of the production.

Photo that shows 2020 12 09 Diggin Opera 2 Startschuss 4. © PR FSH
© PR FSH

November 25, 2020 Green light for Diggin’ Opera II

Rehearsals for the second stage work of the Diggin’ Opera project officially started today at the Oken-Gymnasium in Offenburg. In exactly six months’ time on April 25, 2021, the participants in the project will be stepping onto the Festspielhaus stage to perform their work.

Who is participating in the project?

At the heart of the project are the students from the Oken-Gymnasium Offenburg with their teacher Rebecca Tüttelmann and the students from the Limerick Educate Together Secondary School with their teacher Norma Lowney. The “CyberRäuber” (Cyper Bandits), consisting of Björn Lengers and Marcel Karnapke, experts and (practical) researchers in the field of virtual reality, are responsible for the artistic direction. As a theater educator and theater director, Rob Doornbos devotes himself to regular work with the students.

Micha Kaplan (composer), Dana Marbach (soprano), Tom Kellner (cello), and Merav Goldman (horn) provide musical support.

Thematic exploration

The thematic basis for the cooperation between the two schools is the poem "The Second Coming" by Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

(…)

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

(…)

At the beginning of the rehearsal process, the text is to serve as inspiration and a common reference point for artistic exploration. What associations do the students have, what ideas does the poem evoke? With this initial impetus, they will develop a story of their own during the rehearsal phase.

Goals

  • musical, pictorial, and dramatic associations from the poem and from one's own points of reference
  • based on this, development of musical motifs, visual motifs in virtual reality, stage solutions, and narration
  • creation of a rough script: development of the stage narrative, scenes, and roles
  • stage set concept, virtual worlds, 3D scans of objects
  • musical concept in collaboration with composer and musicians: motifs, dramaturgy, roles
  • development/design of costumes and VR avatars
Updated: 2/5/2021