• Mauricio Kagel
  • Mare Nostrum (1975)
    (Music theatre)

  • Henry Litolff’s Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (World)
  • Ct,Bar + 1.1.0.0/perc/hp/gtr/vc
  • Countertenor, Baritone
  • 1 hr 15 min

Programme Note

If you were not born in Europe but, like me, in South America, then you have had the dubious chance of hearing about “discovery” very often: hardly a celebration – from kindergarten upwards – without the mention of this heaven-ordained “discovery of America”. And at the same time, October 12, 1492, pompously celebrated in South America as “Dia de la Raza” (exact translation: “Day of the – white – race”), evokes the most terrible memories. For the triumph of the whites over the non-whites, as the unwritten history books could soon have reported, was perfect genocide.

The idea of reversing events has long preoccupied me. This time, the non-Europeans were to discover the continent from which the fruitful colonization voyages started. It is not easy for me to describe a composition process that was so lengthy. I should perhaps mention here that not only music history, but history-history is one of my passions. So when I left my birthplace for good in 1957, I brought only a few scores with me to Europe, but a large part of my Americana. From these books I was able to distil the true spirit of my return. The tribe from Amazonia that discovers and pacifies the Mediterranean in order to finally convert it appropriately directs its work with the same ambition and ruthlessness as those conquerors who were the models for this reflection.

The cast of the play includes two acting singers who do not leave their places during the entire performance. The baritone takes on the role of the narrator, who was involved in the discovery of the Mediterranean, but is also a descendant of the now long-extinct tribe. The contratenor, on the other hand, represents the respective natives. (It is likely that both actors swap roles many times during the course of the play. This, too, could not happen without a model). I have written the language of the narrator in a dialect, roughly a composite of German as spoken by guest workers from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. Using the language of the “conquered” host country is thus intended here as a sign of the constant efforts to express oneself credibly. The dramaturgical escalation associated with this is logical: understanding is only possible if the common language – although constantly distorted – does not lose its learned meaning.

The eight performers sit around a pool of water, the outline of which roughly represents the geographical location of the action. The initially transparent water here, not unlike in reality, becomes increasingly cloudy, repulsive and finally Sud. In this Mare Nostrum, the ship of the Amazonians sails from land to land, always discovering white savages and their questionable customs anew.

This fable may be a parable with reversed signs, but one thing is certain: idealistic ideas and pipe dreams always fail in history. And yet the question remains: Could the savage whites also have been civilized with sword and fire?

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)

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