Musical theater Devils (2024)

The premiere of the music theatre “Devils”, created by the Berlin music theatre collective “Hauen und Stechen” in collaboration with Latvian artists, happened on 9 August 2024 at the Sansusi Festival. The performance, based on Latvian tales and literature, is the next collaboration between the team of the opera film and the production “Baņuta” (2022).

You can find devils almost at every turn, according to the Latvian Folklore Archive of tales, which has been organised by researcher Alma Ancelāne for thirty years.  Devils are dwelling in swamps and forests, in manors, schools, under bridges and on crossroads. The devil “whistles like a whirlwind, explodes and splits, screams with a six-throated roar”, wrote Anna Brigadere in her poem “The Son of Power”. The devil is mentioned here and there, often where someone has died in a bad way or a cow has been thrown into a swamp. The devil is attributed in Latvian tales, as well as in other folklore and pop culture, to all kinds of desires, fears, experiences of violence and fantasies. However, it is clear that devil stories express much more about the human than the diabolical. The fantastic merges into our everyday world. It is a collage of motifs inspired by the archive cupboard of the Folklore Archive and life in the time of world destruction, as well as the works of different Latvian authors. New instrumental and electronic music was created for this show. The music theatre performance “Devils” was a sensually immersive, performative and colourful experience, presenting archetypal characters familiar to everyone.

The production was created by composers Raivis Misjuns un Alise Rancāne, dramaturge Evarts Melnalksnis, director Franziska Kronfoth, stage designer Lotta Hench. The cast included singers Laura Grecka and David Ristau, performers Gina-Lisa Maiwald and Āris Matesovičs, and multi-instrumentalist Jēkabs Nīmanis. The creators of the performance and the NGO Sansusi have already successfully collaborated on the opera “Baņuta”, which was nominated for the 2022 Great Music Award of Latvia. The energetic creativity and unorthodox approach of the Berlin based music theatre collective “Hauen und Stechen” is fascinating. It takes a performative approach to opera and theatre, offering a fresh and unique artistic experience that appeals to a wide audience. 

Financial supporters: the State Culture Capital Foundation, the Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the Berlin Senate and the Goethe-Institut Riga. Cooperation partners: the National Library of Latvia and the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia. 

Produced by Sansusī.

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