Wiener Festwochen 2019: David Marton / Road Opera - Narziss und Echo

David Marton, who trained as a classical pianist in Budapest and Berlin and who has collaborated with Christoph Marthaler and Frank Castorf among others, is known for his unconventional ideas. In his own works he continuously explores how theatre can develop from music. The new creation of Narcissus and Echo examines the impossible encounter of two mythological figures: The nymph Echo can only communicate by repeating the words of others, while Narcissus is a beautiful young man who cannot stop looking at his own reflection. In their union, sonic self-reflection and visual self-observation meet, yet do not come together. For Marton, the question of identity and the (im)possibility of a bridge from the self to the other is a fundamental theme in art. Here, Ovid’s myth is broken down into its individual parts and reassembled in an unending meta morphosis that contrasts music from the Baroque to the present with the digital sounds of our everyday lives.