Composition Commission issued to Hauke Berheide

Opera Frankfurt, Germany

The People Out There is the third collaboration between German composer Hauke Berheide and American librettist Amy Stebbins. In a joint working process, the libretto and music of a new music theatre about the effects of digitality on human, erotic and economic relationships are created in dialogue with literary and historical texts.

The plot of the opera is set in a dystopian future. In a digitally optimised "inside", increasingly disembodied individuals stage their self-perfected lives. Around them exists a brutal, impoverished, bodily unmedialised "outside" that vacillates between flight, rebellion and allegiance and stands in an ambivalent relationship to the "inside world". While the insiders seal themselves off behind seemingly transparent yet impenetrable glass facades, they depend on the outsiders as workers, as followers, as suppliers of "authenticity", of "fresh blood". The commission of the Opera Frankfurt to Hauke Berheide is funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Due to the current situation and associated regulations, there may be changes at short notice. For the latest information on the project please therefore check oper-frankfurt.de