Graz, Dom im Berg

An opera at the crossroads of sound and body

Projections and sculptures by Manfred Erjautz with music and drama in the Dom im Berg.

(Bild: Manfred Erjautz)

The world premiere of the first opera "The closer I get, the more I drift afar" by Styrian artist Manfred Erjautz in Graz's Dom im Berg offers a dense world of expression.

These are opulent scenes that "The closer I get, the more I drift afar" carves into the depths of the Schloßberg. The "Opera scultura" by artist Manfred Erjautz fuses sculpture, music, drama and multimedia art.

The cryptic plot sends singer Camille Primeau through a series of encounters: In the mirror of various sculptures, she confronts her body, art as a tool for exploring the world and, finally, death.

Contact between different art forms
Erjautz's depiction of the sensual points of contact between different art forms makes a great impression. With powerful, pop-technoid sounds from the computer and esoteric spherical sounds on cello, piano and flute, the composers Auberto Crovato, Severin Su, Martin Lesjak and Wolfgang Hattinger create a kind of sound cast of the material torsos and sculptures.

Manfred Erjautz created his first opera.

(Bild: Manfred Erjautz)

Projections, plays of light and wandering through the space form further layers of this dense world of expression. As a sensory experience, "The closer I get" is extremely exciting - if only Erjautz's texts had been a little less pretentious. At the end, when a series of terse words on the screen dissolve into nothingness, a self-ironic impression is created: meaning and emptiness finally become one.