Fairground
An opera about the (im)possiblities of life
The opera describes a society in which there are no bubbles. Everyone has their own emotional baggage, their own potential and their own ideas on how to approach life. Some dream of personal happiness, others of a new society, a third person thinks they are already living in the best possible system. They all have to come to terms not only with themselves and their fellow human beings, but also with the adverse conditions of the state in which they live.
When? September to November 2025
Where? Chemnitz, Chemnitz Theatre
Chemnitz Theatre developed the multi-part project Rummelplatz. The starting point was Werner Bräunig's novel of the same name, which was adapted by Ludger Vollmer (composition) and Jenny Erpenbeck (libretto) as a musical theatre work for the stage. The premiere of the work took place on 20 September 2025. It was about how people relate to social conditions, the political system and the thoughts and moods of their time.
To accompany this, Chemnitz Opera had launched a participatory international writing workshop programme that used methods of autobiographical writing. The workshops were a place for people from the city and region to record unheard-of events or pursue questions that had been bothering them for a long time. Untold stories were brought up, processed and resonated with. In addition to dealing with individual topics, the focus was on encounters between generations and nations. There was another writing workshop in Ústí nad Labem, which was in dialogue with the one in Chemnitz.
A conference aimed at a broad non-specialist audience was also part of the project and, on the weekend of the premiere in autumn 2025, dealt with the topics of the project in cross-sectional lecture and discussion formats.
