After Edgar Allan Poe

A nameless man, convicted of murder, sits on death row, awaiting his execution. He has killed his wife. But he does not understand: how did this happen, and what led him to commit the crime? He begins to tell his story: the Story of the Black Cat.
 


 '... to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified - have tortured - have destroyed me ’.
Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Black Cat'
 

Three renowned artists in their respective creative fields – the Luxemburg-based theatre and film director Frank Hoffmann, Austrian conductor Martin Haselböck, and Academy Award-nominated Austrian film and multi-media artist Virgil Widrich – have created a multi-disciplinary project for music, dance and film. With a dramatic space created by Virgil Widrich, the acclaimed dancers Sylvia Camarda and Jean-Guillaume Weis perform to a soundtrack conceived by Martin Haselböck – using the unsettling music of contemporary English songwriter David Sylvian and arias from the cantatas of J.S. Bach, performed on stage by tenor and baroque ensemble – which underpins the journey into perdition and the abyss of a desperate murderer’s soul as depicted in Edgar Allan Poe’s novella.
 

The audience can expect an enthralling work of contrasts and extremes, from baroque ensemble (oboe, five strings and organ) to visual multi-media, from Bach to Rock, including singing, dancing and acting. The soundtrack incorporates additional music by Ernst Krenek, Martin Haselböck and Ülo Krigul.

BLACK CAT

Concept: Martin Haselböck, Frank Hoffmann, Virgil Widrich 
Musical direction: Martin Haselböck 
Director: Frank Hoffmann 
Stage and visualisations: Virgil Widrich 
Animation: Oleg Prodeus 
Costumes: Katharina Polheim 

With: 
Tenor: James Oxley (Nicholas Mulroy, Aaron Sheehan or others)
Dancers: Sylvia Camarda, Jean-Guillaume Weis 
Ensemble: Wiener Akademie or Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra  
Co-production Théâtre National du Luxembourg & Musikkonzept Wien
 
J.S. Bach / David Sylvian / Edgar Allan Poe 
Martin Haselböck / Frank Hoffmann / Virgil Widrich    

Première: Théâtre National du Luxembourg, 19.11.2012 








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