Opening of the MQ Summer Stage

Lila-Zoé
KraußSet in the dystopia of the early 21st century, the opera follows the character Girl through a queer-noir world as she searches for the origin of the computer program “The Art of Mind,” through which she has previously journeyed through her own mind. No longer a child, Girl leaves her mother MOW (Manic Old Woman) behind to embark on this quest. MOW refuses to follow a master plan devised by the unemployment office and voluntarily remains in a psychiatric ward. Traversing real and fictional locations—such as Ward 161, Charcot’s Amphitheater in Paris, a German air-raid shelter, or the Brain, Mind & Memory Institute of an ominous neuroscientist named FATHER—Girl’s search delves deep into the European history of madness. The more details she uncovers, the clearer the interconnections between this story and the media, ideologies of cybernetics, politics, and modern democracy become. By fusing operatic scenes of madness with electroacoustic experiments, choral polyphony, audio archives, and her own expressive voice, Krauss creates a dynamic sonic schizo-cartography. Moving through time zones, frequency multitudes, and hybrid rhythms, the artist invites us to rethink our relationship to madness—as a process of attuning ourselves to the emotional landscape of a world marked by ecological destruction, normalized genocide, and political class struggle.

Noushin
Redjaian touches on everything from ambient and dub to psychedelic reggaeton and new dancehall, blended with her love for R&B, hip-hop, and traditional Persian music.