BRUCHLANDUNG

BRUCHLANDUNG

EPIC TOPIAS SONIC UNIVERSE

Dedicated to Peter Ziethen.

GUILLERMO ANZORENA as LE SCATTERMAN

with

Judith Hamann – cello

Michael Kieran Harvey – piano

A post-apocalyptic chamber opera – a one-man song cycle of humanity’s end.

Out of grim and perilous darkness, a lone figure emerges: a survivor of some global collapse, tormented by a cruel final dilemma — must he eat his wife? Luminous flashes of video animate his broken existence, as he pedals furiously to screen old home movies scavenged from the wastes. Punctuated by a minimalist musical score of baritone voice, piano and cello, the tragedy of his tale gradually takes ominous shape; this is the way the world ends – not with a blinding flash or rain of fire, but a slow fading of the light.

The work was originally written for legendary German baritone singer Peter Ziethen and musicians within the Ziethen/Hantich family. Since Ziethen’s passing new iterations of the work have featured acclaimed Argentinian/German baritone Guillermo Anzorena, Australia’s Michael Kieren Harvey on piano and cellist Judith Hamann, Bruchlandung is a bold and experimental post-apocalyptic chamber opera project by wild child sonic artist/composer James Hullick.

Heavily influenced by the formal German lieder song and Japanese Noh theatre traditions, the full presentation of this haunting work made its premiere at Melbourne Festival 2013.

REVIEWS

“In the programme notes, the translation for the word Bruchlandung is “crash landing”. This is as good a description as any for the audience’s initial experience of this experimental and challenging work. The plot centres on the unnamed protagonist’s existence in some ill-defined post-apocalyptic land. There is one decision that the protagonist, voiced so committedly by Guillermo Anzorena, must make. But really, any plot or narrative through-line is secondary to the performances of the piece’s three musicians.” Broadway Baby, 2014.

“a highly reduced transparent psychogram, that shocks as much as electrifies the listener.” Reutlinger Nachrichten, 2007.

Previous Performances 

Melbourne Festival 2013, Iwaki Auditorium, Southbank. In partnership with ABC Classic FM and JOLT Arts.
25 October 2013

Goossens Auditorium, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney. In partnership with ABC Classic FM and JOLT Arts.
31 October 2013

The Forge, London. Presented by JOLT Arts.
29 July 2014

Edinburgh Fringe Festival, St Peters, Edinburgh. In partnership with JOLT Arts.
1 – 2 August 2014