Muziektheater Transparant . Centro de Experimentación Teatro Colón

'The musical expression of an obsession'; this is perhaps the best summary of the chamber opera 'Jakob Lenz' by the German composer Wolfgang Rihm (b. 1952). His plays 'Der Hofmeister' and 'Die Soldaten' made the Sturm und Drang poet Jakob Lenz (1751-1792) one of the most important theatre innovators in early German Romanticism. He was first admired as a genius, but later despised as a madman. His confused and schizophrenic life has always appealed to other writers' imaginations. Georg Büchner wrote about him exhaustively in his novella 'Lenz', concentrating mainly on the poet's inner state of mind. Büchner's 'psychiatric reconstruction' was in its turn the basis for Wolfgang Rihm's composition. The intense dramatic fable is here translated into a sober and intelligent piece of directing by Caroline Petrick. A Belgian-Argentine joint venture.