DIE A HAPPY MAN

Volume

26.08.22 – 27.08.22

Experience a kaleidoscopic opera about the Western idea of ‘the meaning of life’. The innovative composer Marcela Lucatelli has imagined a stunningly alternative world history where Europe is colonised by the rain forest population.

'Die A Happy Man' is based on the mysterious avant-garde opera 'Mare Nostrum', which the Argentinian-German composer Mauricio Kagel wrote in 1975. The work imagines a speculative future where the Mediterranean countries are colonised by a civilisation with Amazonian origin.

In Marcela Lucatelli's interpretation, the Danish-German tenor, Mathias Monrad Møller, sings the lead role as the questionable hero Emo Kneemover, who is in pursuit of personal development in life. Through his dazed flashes of memory, the audience are presented with a sensuous story of colonisation in reverse and the European landscape of ruins which the invasion encounters.

The main character has to question the Western view of the world by which he is influenced. Is it possible to die as a satisfied human being?

The innovative and internationally acclaimed composer Marcela Lucatelli was born in Brazil but resides in Copenhagen. The German sound researcher Holger Schulze has contributed to the libretto, and he describes the work as “an operatic Bildungsroman of the most lavish and transformative kind.”