Zacherl factory
Nusswaldgasse 14, 1190 Vienna
Thomas C. Desi, Gilbert Handler
Splice
Two performances about an ego
A body in which twelve voices live. NOCTURNES is inspired by the true story of a woman with multiple personalities, some of which are and of what actors and actresses know - and of what singers do when they repeatedly take on new roles.slip through the cracks. The play by Thomas Desi examines, how we recognise a person's character. A music theatre performance across the borders of identity within us.
In the second piece, the ideas developed by C.G. Jungarchetypes as electroacoustic allegories in combination withaudible with a loudspeaker orchestra made. ELECTRIC ARCHETYPES is a composition by Gilbert Handler, which deals with the collective aspects of personality.
A NARRATIVE ABOUT NOCTURNES
A singer's dream of singing Chopin's melodies is linked to a tragic accident, the exact circumstances of which have never been clarified. The film tells the story of a woman with a dissociated identity structure. Who is to blame when one of her personalities commits murder?
Archetypal soundscapes
ELEKTRISCHE ARCHETYPEN is based on recordings of Gilbert Handler's voice. The sound sources are chants based on Nordic Joik techniques, short texts, screams, rasping sounds and breathing noises. The result is twelve short electro-acoustic compositions, each assigned to an archetype of C. G. Jung archetypes. The performance takes place via an Akusmonium, an ensemble of 21 differently positioned loudspeakers. Handler's live voice is juxtaposed with the electroacoustic rendition and merges with it in places.
A production of the Musiktheatertage Wien.
ZERO
Credits
Text, music and staging: Thomas Cornelius Desi
Voice and performance: Manami Okazaki
Electric guitar: Kenji Herbert
Production management: Thomas Neulichedl
Assistant director: Jonas Nikolai
Composition: Gilbert Handler
Voice: Gilbert Handler
Sound direction/sound engineering: Christian Tschinkel and Martin Fuchs
Photo: Ronja Elina Kappl
Bios
THOMAS CORNELIUS DESI is an Austrian composer, author and director as well as co-founder and artistic director of the MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN. In numerous productions, Desi has developed a new music theatre as a "théâtre d'auteur". At the centre of this work is the individual and the consequences of their actions. From this, Desi developed the format of a "theatre of encounter". Inspired by the work of Jakob L. Moreno, the interaction of the audience through poetics and aesthetics enables those present to relate individually to each other and to the theme of the piece.
Desi was musical director of "Totales Theater Wien", ensemble KlangArten and others,
and artistic director of the music theatre group ZOON. His book "The New Music Theatre", co-authored with Eric Salzman, has become a standard work on new music theatre.
Manami Okazakiborn in Japan, completed her Master's degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She made her debut as an opera singer at the Vienna Chamber Opera and has since sung at renowned venues such as the Vienna State Opera, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. She has also appeared on stage as an actress since 2020.
Gilbert Handler (*1972, Klosterneuburg near Vienna), versatile composer, singer, electronic musician and performer. He studied computer music and experimental media at the mdw in Vienna as well as theatre studies and art history at the University of Vienna.
Since 1999, he has made his mark on the music scene with compositions and live performances for renowned theatre and dance productions - including at the Volkstheater Wien, Theater Phönix (Linz), Landestheater Linz, Schauspielhaus Graz, Kampnagel Hamburg, Schaubühne Berlin, Schauspielhaus Dresden, Nationaltheater Mannheim - as well as at international festivals in Zurich, Skopje, Cairo and Nairobi.
He also scores film and radio play productions such as Sabine Derflinger's "Tag und Nacht" and the radio play "The Who and the What" (director: Andreas Jungwirth, Ö1). His projects range from sound installations and electro-acoustic stage art to innovative stage creations such as "Solitude" - an electronic one-man opera - and the composition cycle "Elektrische Archetypen".
Handler has been artistic director of the audio art festival "Eing'steckt is" since 2023.