Live performances and projects for the stage
Works for the stage and performances in which Virgil Widrich has played an artistic role in various functions.
Film production, Stage, 2019
Nova – Imperfection Perfection
An opera by Franz Danksagmüller for a singer, viola, live
electronics, two virtual singers and a digital stage design.
Singularity – the fusion of mankind with artificial intelligence to form an omnipotent and omniscient network – is the starting point of the opera. While our planet threatens to become less and less habitable, life in the virtual world seems increasingly tempting.
People connect more and more with the system in which everything seems to be possible. There are no limits, no unfulfillable desires and the possibilities of expansion seem to be infinite - detached from the limiting body.
But with infinity, the boundlessness and the fact that everyone can reach everything or create himself, ambition, incentive and all other emotions disappear. Arbitrariness and indifference spread and the exponential development leads to a temporal standstill.
Because all individuals have grown together to a system, the differences finally cancel each other out, a single consciousness, a singular being remains. All occurrences become predictable – there are no more surprises, no more liveliness.
The system recognizes the danger of standstill, which would be synonymous with the dissolution of its existence, and creates a new being: Nova.
As an unpredictable and independent counterpart, Nova should challenge the system again and thus bring it back to new life.
World premiere: 20 June 2019, 19:30 p.m., Orchesterzentrum
NRW, Dortmund.
Further performances: Friday, 21 June 2019, 11:00 a.m. and 15:00 p.m.
Singularity – the fusion of mankind with artificial intelligence to form an omnipotent and omniscient network – is the starting point of the opera. While our planet threatens to become less and less habitable, life in the virtual world seems increasingly tempting.
People connect more and more with the system in which everything seems to be possible. There are no limits, no unfulfillable desires and the possibilities of expansion seem to be infinite - detached from the limiting body.
But with infinity, the boundlessness and the fact that everyone can reach everything or create himself, ambition, incentive and all other emotions disappear. Arbitrariness and indifference spread and the exponential development leads to a temporal standstill.
Because all individuals have grown together to a system, the differences finally cancel each other out, a single consciousness, a singular being remains. All occurrences become predictable – there are no more surprises, no more liveliness.
The system recognizes the danger of standstill, which would be synonymous with the dissolution of its existence, and creates a new being: Nova.
As an unpredictable and independent counterpart, Nova should challenge the system again and thus bring it back to new life.
Stage, Film, 2018
Icon Island – a live battle of pictures and sounds
A 2018, live performance,
full HD, 16:9
Length: approx. 70 min.
Carefully selected visuals, many including a connection to Malta and its cinematic history, will be projected as a ‘live’ mix accompanied by a live electronic music performance by Maltese artist Sonitus Eco, the latter performed instinctively and spontaneously as an improvised soundtrack to the ephemeral visuals. The sounds of the films are re-imagined on the fly, the pictures react to – or even oppose – the sound. Man against island, picture against sound.
The collage of visuals is inspired by films dealing with the mystic and romantic journey to islands representing alternative societies or different states of mind: sometimes those places, questioning the custom identity of their visitors, are paradise and a threat at the same time.
Length: approx. 70 min.
Carefully selected visuals, many including a connection to Malta and its cinematic history, will be projected as a ‘live’ mix accompanied by a live electronic music performance by Maltese artist Sonitus Eco, the latter performed instinctively and spontaneously as an improvised soundtrack to the ephemeral visuals. The sounds of the films are re-imagined on the fly, the pictures react to – or even oppose – the sound. Man against island, picture against sound.
The collage of visuals is inspired by films dealing with the mystic and romantic journey to islands representing alternative societies or different states of mind: sometimes those places, questioning the custom identity of their visitors, are paradise and a threat at the same time.
Exhibition, Stage, checkpointmedia, 2017
70 Years of the Marshall Plan
Design and implementation of the
anniversary event
On 5 June 1947 George Marshall made a speech in Harvard that changed the world: with it, the American Secretary of State and adviser to President Truman laid the foundations of the European Recovery Program (ERP). The so-called Marshall Plan became the most successful political project in American and European history. Between 1948 and 1952, 14 billion dollars, funded by the American taxpayer, was paid into the reconstruction programme for Europe. Austria’s economy continues to benefit from these funds to this day, which are used to promote innovative projects by Austrian companies and start-ups under a scheme for ERP loans granted by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws).
The festivities marking the 70th anniversary of Marshall Plan aid, with speeches by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Vice-Chancellor Wolfgang Brandstetter and the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the US Embassy in Vienna, Eugene S. Young, demonstrate this connection between the past and the future.
"70 projections for 70 years": Under the artistic direction of Virgil Widrich, a multi-disciplinary team designed the event on 21. June 2017 at METAStadt Vienna and a travelling exhibition for the Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (ERP Fund).
On 5 June 1947 George Marshall made a speech in Harvard that changed the world: with it, the American Secretary of State and adviser to President Truman laid the foundations of the European Recovery Program (ERP). The so-called Marshall Plan became the most successful political project in American and European history. Between 1948 and 1952, 14 billion dollars, funded by the American taxpayer, was paid into the reconstruction programme for Europe. Austria’s economy continues to benefit from these funds to this day, which are used to promote innovative projects by Austrian companies and start-ups under a scheme for ERP loans granted by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws).
The festivities marking the 70th anniversary of Marshall Plan aid, with speeches by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Vice-Chancellor Wolfgang Brandstetter and the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the US Embassy in Vienna, Eugene S. Young, demonstrate this connection between the past and the future.
"70 projections for 70 years": Under the artistic direction of Virgil Widrich, a multi-disciplinary team designed the event on 21. June 2017 at METAStadt Vienna and a travelling exhibition for the Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (ERP Fund).
Stage, Screenplay, 2012
Black Cat/New Angels
A stage musical for one tenor, two dancers and a baroque ensemble, based on the novella "The
Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and David Sylvian. Conceived by Martin Haselböck, Frank Hoffmann
and Virgil Widrich. World premiere 19/11/2012 at the Théâtre National du Luxembourg.
A co-production of the Théâtre National du Luxembourg and Musikkonzept Wien.
A co-production of the Théâtre National du Luxembourg and Musikkonzept Wien.