- Ketan Bhatti and Vivan Bhatti
Der Rote Wal. Ein deutsches Herbstmärchen (2024)
- Bosworth Music (World)
Commissioned by Württembergische Staatstheater Stuttgart
Commissioner exclusivity applies
Unavailable for performance.
- 2(pic,afl). 2(ca).2(bcl).2(cbn) / 4.2.2(btbn)1 / timp+3perc / harp / prepared pf / synth / egtr / Tape(Zuspiel) / Str(min. 4.4.3.2.2) - all amplified
- SATB
- 2 Mz, Alt, T, Bar, B; 3 rapper
- 1 hr 30 min
- Maeckes (Markus Winter)
- German
- 17th December 2025, Opernhaus, Stuttgart, Germany
- 22nd December 2025, Opernhaus, Stuttgart, Germany
Programme Note
Der Rote Wal. Ein Deutsches Herbstmärchen is an opera that transcends musical genres – a music theatre piece exploring themes of resistance, power, and transformation. Inspired by real-life reports of orca attacks on boats near Gibraltar, the opera tells its story in the form of a fairy tale: the tale of Gladis, a female orca who turns against what is destroying her world – cruise ships, superyachts – symbols of a destructive system. Against the historical backdrop of Stammheim and the RAF, questions such as “Do the ends justify the means?” or “Is violence the last resort when peaceful protest fails?” linger alongside themes of hope and utopia.
Our creative approach in this opera is shaped by imitation as a springboard for innovation. We blend electronic sounds with their orchestral imitations. Powerful rhythmic passages and lyrical moments create a tension that defines our music. Rap and hip-hop run like a DNA strand throughout the work – not as mere quotations, but as a stance, a rhythmic foundation. They form a hidden core that reveals itself in the textures of our compositions, embodying what we see as an aesthetic of resistance.
The choir in The Red Whale is a shapeshifting entity that oscillates between tradition and experimentation. Influences from the spirit of ’68, rock music, and the works of Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill permeate the score, intertwining with a contemporary musical perspective. We drift between genres, always striving for interdisciplinary viewpoints to discover new forms of expression.
We were particularly struck by how relevant some statements from the courtrooms of the RAF trials sound today – how historical moments reflect contemporary dilemmas surrounding protest and systemic critique.
We are deeply grateful for this unique commission from Viktor Schoner and the Stuttgart State Opera, as well as for the intense collaboration with Markus Winter (Maeckes) and Martin G. Berger. This was an extraordinary partnership, marked by trust and mutual respect, which enabled us to explore new creative paths together.
(Vivan and Ketan Bhatti)
Reviews
Musically, Vivan and Ketan Bhatti mix classical opera, rap, rock, and musical into a sound that cannot be categorized—and doesn’t want to be.
It is almost uncanny how ... [Vivan and Ketan Bhatti] command tones, gestures, and compositional strategies, how they glue them together with astonishing elegance—nothing here seems lazily sampled or collaged: from avant-garde techniques like Ligeti-style sound surfaces to John Adams, musical sophistry from Stephen Sondheim, besides Hindemith, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, Shostakovich pathos.
… brothers Vivan & Ketan Bhatti translate the libretto congenially into a rhythmically appropriate remix, highly differentiated music.
"Der rote Wal" does not only address the relationship between peace and violence, power and powerlessness, individual and collective, but—fifty years after the Stammheim trial—also circles around the terrorism of the 1970s. And much more besides.
Opera and musical, hip-hop and aria, electronic and live music, free association and documentary, stage acting and video worlds, irony, humor, and deep seriousness: everything is part of a bold, dazzling music theater experiment.
Especially the final passages, featuring the whale rearing up with all its might, have enormous presence and tremendous orchestral impact. A truly new sound aesthetic has emerged here. Vivan & Ketan Bhatti also work with sophisticated sonic quotations.
But both composers do not want documentary theater. Thus, there is spoken, rapped, and sung word, as well as musical and operatic singing.
Beats like bass drum and snare drum are imitated sonically. Groove, rhythm, and sound blend together. The play with the smallest shifts is harmonically exciting – for example, when five-sixteenth-note motifs lie over a four-sixteenth-note grid. Voice recordings of Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof, and Andreas Baader are processed musically. A cellist plays along Baader’s speech melody. In doing so, a bridge is also formed from the orca protagonist to the prisoners in Stammheim. Andreas Baader’s expression “Eine Knarre, die spricht” [a gun that speaks] is transformed into dance-like emphasis.
More Info
- World premiere of genre-defying opera ‘Der rote Wal‘ by Vivan and Ketan Bhatti
- 12th June 2025
- The new opera Der rote Wal. Ein deutsches Herbstmärchen (The red whale. A German autumn-fairy tale) by Vivan and Ketan Bhatti will premiere on June 18 at Staatsoper Stuttgart.