MITRA | MTTW 2022
Eva Reiter (AT), Jorge León (BE) / Muziektheater Transparant & Ictus (BE)
MITRA
The musical testimony of a tragic rebel
Austrian premiere
"MITRA" is a story of resistance and solidarity in which the truth is sought with the eye of the camera and found in sound through the singing voice. The melange of opera, documentary film and installation tells the fate of the Iranian psychoanalyst Mitra Kadivar, who was unjustly admitted to the psychiatric ward in 2012 after she set up a school for psychoanalysis in Tehran and turned her home into a drop-in centre for drug addicts. Director Jorge Leòn and the Ictus Ensembles hauntingly realise the emotionally intense composition by Austrian composer Eva Reiter, drawing the audience into the middle of the reality of a psychiatric institution and, together with the psychoanalyst falsely diagnosed as psychotic, out again. Thanks to the commitment of her students and the support of the well-known analyst Jacques Alain Miller, Mitra Kadivar was finally released.
Multifaceted and in all her fragility, Claron McFadden plays this female heroine in a production about the rebelliousness of being human, rebelling against oppression and powerlessness.
Concept and direction: Jorge León Composition: Eva Reiter Composition of choral pieces: George van Dam Musical direction: Georges-Elie Octors Dramaturgy: Isabelle Dumont Video: Aliocha Van der Avoort Scenography: Thibault Van Craenenbroeck Costumes: Silvia Hasenclever With: Simone Aughterlony (performance), Mitra Kadivar (voice), Claron McFadden (vocals), Jacques-Alain Miller (voice), Laurenz Schäfer (performance) Image design: Jorge León, Thomas Schira, Aliocha Van der Avoort Light: Peter Quasters Sound: Alexandre Fostier Music (in the video): Ictus Ensemble: Gerrit Nulens (percussion), Eva Reiter (Paetzold recorder, bass violin), Michael Schmid (flute), George van Dam (violin) Choir (in the video): Kooracademie De Munt/La Monnaie Choir Choir direction: Georges-Elie Octors Thanks to: Paul Aron, Julie Chenot, Amélie Derlon Cordina, Aurélie Deloche, Julien Englebert, Bernard Foccroulle, Anne-Lise Gobin, Fabienne Moris, Jean Pierre Rehm Production: Muziektheater Transparant and Ictus Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Théâtre de Liège, De Munt/La Monnaie, Present Perfect Brussels, GMEM Marseille, Actoral Marseille, Les films de Force Majeure Brussels, Ultima festival Oslo Supported by: Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, International Film Festival Marseille FID, Ultima Festival, Camargo Foundation, IRCAM, CNC DICRéAM, Thank you & Good Night Production, Interreg V Euregio Meuse Rhin & Wallonia, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Austrian Cultural Forum, Government of Flanders
