THE END of THE WORLD
An AR opera walk about personal endings of the world
All screenings of THE END OF THE WORLD have been postponed to 2024 due to health reasons.
Premiere
What do we mean when we speak of the "end of the world"? How does it feel and how can it be experienced? THE END of THE WORLD is an augmented reality opera walk that traces the myth of the end of the world - from the personal perspective of women of our time.
In a two-year development process, the team around Argentine composer Patricia Martinez, librettist Giuliana Kiersz and director Carmen C. Kruse conducted interviews with women of different generations, cultures and backgrounds in Vienna and Buenos Aires. The collected stories provide insights into historically overlooked perspectives and experiences - diagnoses of illness, the struggle to become and be a mother, loss of home, dying, social upheavals and much more.
With the help of augmented reality glasses and holograms, an immersive, scenic and acoustic work is created in which narratives of incisive female experiences come to life before the eyes of the strolling audience.
A co-production of Civic Opera Creations, SWR Experimental Studio Freiburg, Centro Experimental del Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) and MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN.
All screenings
Credits
Biographies
Composition: Patricia Martinéz | Participation Composition: Hannah Eisendle, Golfam Khayam, Netta Shahar, Diana Syrse, Lina Tonia | Libretto: Giuliana Kiersz | Directed by: Carmen C. Kruse | With: Clara Maria Kastenholz (hologram), Sofia Pavone (hologram), Anna Schors (hologram), Ensemble Experimental (ENEX), SWR Experimentalstudio | Costumes: Clara Strasser | Augmented Reality: Alisa Kherson, Yunnai Zhang | Dramaturgy and project management: Marie Steiner | Production: Civic Opera Creations, SWR Experimental Studio Freiburg, Centro Experimental del Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN
CARMEN C. KRUSE, DIRECTOR
Carmen C. Kruse is an award-winning opera director and collaborator. As Co-Artistic Director of Vienna-based Civic Opera Creations, she is an active advocate for New Opera. Her work is informed by a deep, psychological exploration of broad social issues and their impact on individuals, and is fed by first-hand accounts and community input. Kruse creates immersive live experiences that alter the relationship between orchestra and dramatic action, presenting archaic worlds that inspire and empower. Kruse won the Baden-Baden directing competition and the CROSS prize in Italy. Productions and scholarships have taken her to prestigious venues such as the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, Ensemble Modern and Lincoln Center's Directors Lab in Europe, Australia and North America.
PATRICIA MARTÍNEZ, COMPOSER
Patricia Martínez was an Argentinian-Spanish composer, interdisciplinary artist and performer. Her creative and scholarly interests focused on new music composition and interdisciplinary projects, especially contemporary music theatre, new opera, music composition and performance, the meaningful use of technology (electroacoustic and video art), improvisation and choreography-composition. She studied in Buenos Aires, Quilmes, IRCAM and Stanford University and has won several prizes and awards.
GIULIANA KIERSZ, LIBRETTIST
Argentine word artist, writer and playwright Giuliana Kiersz bases her work on a combination of personal and regional research, with a strong interest in the relationship with language, the specific local context, collective writing, the political dimension of the word and the broadening of social and political horizons. She trained as a playwright in Buenos Aires and was a fellow of the Royal Court Theatre International Playwrights Programme. El fin was awarded the Germán Rozenmacher Prize and produced by the Buenos Aires International Festival in 2019. In 2015, she won third prize in the Instituto Nacional del Teatro competition with Isabel I, which published her work in 2016. Her work has since been performed in Argentina, Germany, France and Mexico.
© Katharina Grof 
© Katharina Grof 
© Katharina Grof