The opera Colourful Penis is about the spiritual understanding of masculinity and becoming a man. “In this work I have reduced the man to his sexual organ. Each character expresses a specific character trait of a single masculine person within his sexual organ. I extend this metaphor with a study on the concealed and ambivalent nature of the individual,” explains Maria de Alvear. She achieved fame with her orchestral works for voice and ensemble, including Sexo, World and Vagina. Colourful Penis is performed by VocaalLAB vocalists and the Berlin ensemble KlangArt. It is directed by Anna Malunat.

Credits

VocaalLAB-soloists: Romain Bischoff, Bauwien van der meer, Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson, Camille Hesketh, Gudrun Burghofer, Elsbeth Gerritsen, Arnout Lems, Job Hubatka

Ensemble Klangart Berlin
Horn: Zoltan Maczai, Daniel Kis
Tuba: Sebastian Kunzke
Piano: Heike Gneiting, Majella-Stockhausen-Riegelbauer
Percussion: Jan Schlichte
Cello: Petra Kießling
Bass: Martin Heinze

Staging: Jan Kattein
Costumes: Miriam Grimm

Camera: Barbara Lubich. Ralf Jakubski
Editing; Barbara Lubich, Boris Bischoff

Sponsored by Kunststiftung RNW and Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen.

link: http://www.hellerau.org/

30. September 2008
Komposition: Maria de Alvear
Festspielhaus Hellerau/VocaalLAB
Ort: Dresden Hellerau
Dresdner Tage für Zeitgenössische Musik 2008 – Opera by Maria de Alvear for eight singers