Klein Leppin in Brandenburg: A village makes opera

As the name suggests, Klein Leppin is not particularly big. 40 people live in the village in Brandenburg. In a special setting they do what is missing elsewhere: culture in the country.

Premiere made! Relieved, Bela stretches her arms up and bows. The seven-year-old is on stage for the first time.

It was very exciting. I didn’t pay that much attention to people, I paid more attention to myself when it was my turn.

Bela plays a hedgehog in the children’s opera “Little Red Riding Hood” by César Cui and the stage is almost two hours’ drive from Berlin in the middle of the Prignitz in Klein Leppin. The village consists of a street and a few houses. In between: the festival hall, which doesn’t look like a festival hall. But like what it used to be: a pigsty.

“Like a giant family”

Julia Pankow comes from Klein Leppin. She now lives one place further. As a child, she sometimes helped her grandma feed the pigs in the stables of what was then the agricultural production cooperative. Exactly in this stable, meanwhile expanded and rebuilt, she is now painting the pictures for the event “Dorf macht Oper”.

Every year when we all meet again it’s like a huge family. We’ve known each other for years, that’s such a great thing. It’s amazing and it’s always fun.

The stage itself is not Julia Pankow’s thing. She prefers to work in the background: painting posters, building a stage, selling cakes. “I basically do everything.”

Rehearsals in the rain

A few days before: the hot rehearsal phase. The ensemble wants to get started right away. But it’s raining. In the past few years they have often rehearsed and performed in the pigsty and also offered catering during breaks. But because of Corona, everything has to take place outside. “The acoustic conditions in the stable are much better,” says soloist and choir director Birgit Bockler. “But that is not the case now and we have to come to terms with that.”

Just like with the rain that is holding up the rehearsals. There is still a lot to do, says Bockler – and there are only a few days left until the premiere. But that’s no different on professional stages, rehearsing, changing, improving right up to the last minute.

Professionals and laypeople work together

The team is wildly mixed: the orchestra and soloists are professional musicians, the choir comes from Klein Leppin and the surrounding area, and so does the organ team.

It’s nice to see, says Bockler, how people who have never sung in a choir come back every year. “How they flourish with this task and really make their own culture. I think that’s great and I like to give all my strength to it.”

Bockler moved to the region with her family 25 years ago and works mainly as a singing teacher. She enjoys being on stage as a soloist at the performances.

“No newcomer thing”

Initiator Steffen Tast has lived in Klein Leppin for a long time. He came up with the idea for the project when the Klein Leppiner showed great interest in his job right from the start: He is a violinist in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. The opera project emerged from this. The whole thing was at eye level from the start.

“That is the trick to it that it works at all – that it is not a newcomer thing,” says Tast. “You have seen that very often, that you come to the country with the impetus: We are the artists and we show you guys, what culture is. That wasn’t really our interest from the start, we looked to see what we could do together. “

The whole village participates

Most of the 40 or so people from Klein Leppin are involved in “Dorf macht Oper” – even if only with a homemade cake for the premiere day.

Ursula Krämer lives diagonally across from the Festspielhaus. Her right arm is broken, so she can’t bake like usual this year. “I know the opera almost by heart, they practice every day. It’s very nice.” She came back to the premiere anyway.