Interactive stage and dynamic costume design for the opera. "Marlowe: The Jew of Malta"

Christina Finger, büro+staubach, Germany

In 1996 André Werner was commissioned by the Munich Biennale Festival, a festival for modern music theatre, to compose a contemporary opera. The opera premiered in 2002. It's based on the play "The Famous tragedy of the rich Jew of Malta", written by Christopher Marlowe in 1596. The Jew of Malta unfolds as a story of expropriation, revenge and death of the Jewish merchant Barabas set in a power struggle between representatives of three world religions.

Very early a team was formed taking care of the direction, the stage design, the media concept and the programming. The task was to create an interactive stage and dynamic costume design in close co-operation with André Werner during the process of composing. It was clear from the outset, that the aim was not to create a high-tech spectacular on stage but to extend the options of the traditional stage and costume design.

The composer rewrote the drama for the libretto. He broke the chronological storyline and used only fragments of the original text. Although in Marlowe's play Machiavel only appears in the prologue, André Werner made him the central figure of his opera.

Machiavel considers himself a creator of worlds. In the opera he sets up experiments like improvised plays-within-a play. He directs his experiments, which mainly deal with the acqui- sition of power. Machiavel controls the scenery. He interferes with or stops his experiments, to initiate a new setting, like starting a new program. His power is also expressed by distributing the 15 roles among the other four actors on stage - though technically this process is pre- defined. In the course of the opera he ultimately loses control and fails in his own game.

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