Über Zauberei (2024)
(for choir a cappella/actors ad lib.)

He called me onto the stage
and pulled all the books
out of my head. Then he used
my face as a mask. And my hands
to greet and shake and steal.
He stripped me
of my skin and turned the inside
out, an organic tapestry.
Then he put me
into his top hat and we
left the performance
to applause.

Günter Kunert: Der Zauberkünstler

In seven variations that repeatedly place Günter Kunert's poem – or parts of it – in new scenic situations, Über Zauberei explores different forms of human manipulation. The magic show in the poem, which turns into an aggressive populist speech at the end of my piece, is of central importance, but advertising, school lessons, religious ritual or erotic seduction also find their rightful place in a balancing act between irony, the grotesque and the bitter. The music-theatrical concept, which spans variations, is based on the initial idea of the books in the poem: symbols of free expressions of the mind, which are made to disappear at the end of the “magic show”.

(Translation by Edition Peters)