It’s a veritable dream concert, but what a concert: Helene Fischer meets Rameau, Disney’s “Frozen” meets Elgar, and Beethoven meets James Bond. As an exception, the stage of the Kammerspiele will be taken over by the Munich Symphony Orchestra under their leader Joseph Bastian. He had already planned this project during Corona times with the theater’s dramaturgs, Nele Jahnke and Sebastian Reier, but it is only now that it can finally start. And that is to be taken literally. Because the first evening on Thursday, March 21st, should not be a flash in the pan, but rather the prominent start of a whole series entitled “Masters of Inclusion”.
This time World Down Syndrome Day will end with a lot of enthusiasm when members of the Kammerspiele with and without trisomy 21 will sing and speak on Thursday at 7 p.m.: Luisa Wöllisch, Jelena Kuljić, Dennis Fell-Hernandez, Maren Solty, Fabian Moraw and Elias Krischke.
At the rehearsal in the former Bavaria studios on Schorn Street, everyone involved gets into a great mood right from the start with “I’ve never been to New York” by Udo Jürgens. And this continues as Helene Fischer’s “Breathless through the Night” is sung with great fervor. Elias Krischke and Denis Fell-Hernandez cheer each other on during “Let it go” from “Frozen.” When Jelen Kuljić rehearses the encore alone, which everyone knows but which of course won’t be revealed here, the rest dance to it nicely and you almost feel like you’re in the performance.
Joseph Bastian is thrilled at how big the steps were from the first piano rehearsal to this morning two days before the concert. And you can imagine how the whole thing will continue to develop until the final rehearsals on site and the concert evening. Then the microphones are perfectly controlled and the audience provides the decisive pinch of adrenaline.
Jelena Kuljić rehearses the encore for the evening. Which one is not revealed.
(Photo: Judith Buss)
For a famous, dance-like instrumental piece from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera ballet “Les indes galantes”, a quintet is now needed to provide the rhythm group on various percussion instruments. And Joseph Bastian warns Fabian Moraw, who is allowed to drum: “You have a loud instrument, but remember, our excerpt is about peace!”
When the orchestra is alone, the conductor reminds the actors with a look over his shoulder that they have already had a break. There’s an indignant voice from the back row: “But we want to listen!”
You can then experience the wonderful variation from Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”, in which he portrays a friend who stuttered. And you can hear that in the music. But you also hear Joseph Bastian’s beautiful words, with which he encourages his orchestra to play “with more air in their sound.” Or, conversely, he wishes for “more earthquakes” and is almost surprised at how quickly this is implemented.
Among the lyrics spoken between songs and instrumentals are a tribute to Helene Fischer, Matthias Zalachowski’s “The Story of a New York Street Policeman” and Usama Al Shahmani’s “Who am I, where is my place in the world?
“Masters of Inclusion”, Thursday, March 21st, 7 p.m., Kammerspiele Munich, Schauspielhaus, with Sign language interpretation, maps below www.muenchner-kammerspiele.de