The mixed-abled FOR TOGETHER is working with an opera for the first time and is approaching the myth of with their interdisciplinary working method Orpheus and Eurydice in the hopeful version by Christoph W. Gluck. The musicians of the FOR TOGETHER Gunda Gottschalk, Fabian Neubauer and Ute Völker are developing a very idiosyncratic interpretation of the Gluckian music. The ensemble members will act, dance, scream and also sing the opera – a premiere. An approach to the art form of opera, but also a piece about courage, about love and about missing someone. About yearning for a person, having to pass a trial and about the difficulty of not being able to look at each other.
Orpheus and Eurydike – the two of them are one of the great, tragic couples in love in European cultural history. Contrary to the myth, however, Gluck gives his opera a reconciliatory ending: moved by Orpheus's deep pain and their great love, Cupid intervenes and brings Eurydike back to life.
Game Tim Alberti, Dorothea Brandt, Gunda Gottschalk, Stefan Hellwinkel, Luise Kinner, Fabian Neubauer, Leo Nitas, Kenji Takagi, Lioba Ullrich und Ute Völker
Director: Jakob Fedler
External Eye: Katharina Weishaupt
Music editing: Gunda Gottschalk, Fabian Neubauer & Ute Völker
Set & Costume: Oliver Kostecka
Production management: Ute Völker
In cooperation with: Kinder & Jugend Theater Dortmund, Prinz Regent Theater Bochum, future Pina Bausch Centre Wuppertal & Orangerie Theatre Cologne.
The FOR TOGETHER is an inclusive ensemble founded in Wuppertal in 2015. It is made up of professional artists with and without disabilities from various performing arts disciplines: spoken theatre, dance theatre and musical theatre. This mix defines the ensemble's theatrical language: movement, speech and music are equal parameters that influence and permeate one another. The performers are not restricted to their „trained“ discipline – the dancer becomes an actor, the opera singer a dancer, and all of them together form the „stage band“, which is always part of the action. This presents everyone with new challenges and is always a game of uncertainty and unpredictability. It opens up new and different approaches to the material being worked on, levels the playing field between the artists with and without disabilities, creates new perspectives on their own abilities and expands the repertoire of all participants.
Over recent years, POUR ENSEMBLE has produced four successful stage productions: „Ich selfie mich selbst“ (2016), „Ich bin ein Prinz“ (2018), „Pourquoi pas…?“ (2021/2022) and „Jakob von Gunten“ (2023/24). Such collaboration on an equal footing between artistic personalities with and without disabilities, maintaining professional standards, is unique in this form in North Rhine-Westphalia. From 2023 to 2025, POUR ENSEMBLE's work is being supported by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia with three-year conceptual funding. The engagement with the opera „Orpheus and Eurydice“ is the second project within this funding period.
