Raphael Clamer

Due to extraordinary circumstances, J.G. Irmler is paid his last respects. The irretrievability of its sound is a silent expression of the state of culture in the corona pandemic.

Strauss’ rarely performed bitter-sweet opera of an unhappy marriage fueled with jealousy.

How can structures, which take up defined, rigid portions of space, make us feel transcendence? How can chapels turn into places of introspection? How can walls grant boundless freedom? Driven by intense childhood impressions, director Christoph Schaub visits extraordinary churches, both ancient and futuristic, and discovers works of art that take him up to the skies and all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. With the help of architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Álvaro Siza Vieira, artists James Turrell and Cristina Iglesias, and drummer Sergé “Jojo” Mayer, he tries to make sense of the world and decipher our spiritual experiences using the seemingly abstract concepts of light, time, rhythm, sound, and shape. The superb cinematography turns this contemplative search into a multi-sensory experience.

Queen Bum is a bedtime story invented on the spot by a father and daughter. Teeter-Totter-Town is a Queendom right up in the sky. The subjects Triangle and Fourangle are suffering from up and downs and would like to get rid of their Queen. The child tries to keep the story going, the father would like to end it. Finally the child manages to fall asleep.

Set in a mountainous and thickly wooded Bohemian landscape in the 17th century, Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Der Freischütz" (The Marksman) tells the tale of Max, a young gamekeeper. Max is in love with Agathe, daughter of the head ranger to Prince Ottokar. To win her hand, an ancient custom requires Max to prove his skill as a marksman on the morning of the wedding by shooting at any object the Prince may choose on the spur of the moment. Max is willing to do anything, absolutely anything to succeed - even at the cost of selling his soul to the demon Samiel. Recorded live at the Zürich Opera House, 1999.