A musical installation based on Robert Schumann’s well-known song cycle
The arrival of Lulu Obermayer is a breath of fresh air in the world of opera and classical music. With her radical interpretations,the young German director challenges the genre’s normative approach. Obermayer knows what she is talking about: she grew up in a context in which opera is ubiquitous. Her name is even derived from the eponymous opera by Alban Berg. For her latest performance, Frauenliebe und -Leben, she takes Robert Schumann’s eponymous song cycle as her starting point. For Obermayer, the stereotypical image of the devoted, faithful 19th-century woman who dedicates her life to the man of the house is the perfect starting point for focusing on a number of issues. The cycle is extended by Obermayer to eight hours, the length of a working day, and the solo voice is obliged to give way to eight female voices. In a musical installation there is reflection on the complexity of being a woman, female love and mothership.