Ja, Mai 2025
2.–11.5.2025
The Ja, Mai Festival, dedicated to early and contemporary musical theatre, was called into being in the 2021-2022 season. Following an interlude in the 2023-2024 season, it will now return in the 2024-2025 season. The core concept of the festival, as with its last two outings, is to place musical theatre in the present. Along with the focus on contemporary musical theatre, the beginnings of musical theatre in the early 17th century will also be examined, to then draw a link between yesterday, today and tomorrow, which is also reflected in the material of the performed operas. Along with the UTOPIA Hall and the Cuvilliés Theatre as the main venues, as part of cooperations with other institutions in the city, new locations will also be opened up for the support programme.
The third edition of the festival hails the motto, “Illusions”, referring to the ambiguous perception of reality. Front and centre will be the two operas, Das Jagdgewehr by Thomas Larcher (2018)and Matsukaze byToshio Hosokawa, whose 2011 composition was inspired by Nō theatre. The Lotte van den Berg and Tobias Staab director duo operate in the realm between dance, theatre and film, and with Matsukaze will now collaborate for the first time with the visual, internationally active artist, Alicja Kwade. While a Japanese monk consoles the restless ghosts of two dead sisters here, Das Jagdgewehr is based on a novel by the Japanese poet, Yasushi Inoue, and describes different perspectives of an adulterous affair and the price of living a life with a lie. Director Ulrike Schwab is developingDas Jagdgewehr in a stage design by Jule Saworski. Both productions feature the young soloists of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio.
