Composition Commission issued to Isabel Mundry

Schwetzing SWR Festival, Baden-Baden, Germany

The paths of a married couple and a robber cross in a forest clearing. Their chance encounter leads to the rape of the wife and the subsequent killing of the husband. The narrative consists of court transcripts, first of witnesses who saw the protagonists before or after the crime, then of the main protagonists. From their perspectives, the events are traced three times.

Im Dickicht sees composer Isabel Mundry and librettist Klaus Händl working together for the first time on a full-length piece of musical theater. The material is based on the story of the same name by the Japanese writer Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), primarily known as a result of Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon.

How do we remember as witnesses of an event, why and how do the perspectives shift in objective and subjective terms? How is it that the same event is interpreted completely differently? Are we manipulated? Is it even possible to find out the truth? Isabel Mundry and Klaus Händl approach these topical questions by musical and theatrical means and point out the difference between saying and showing, between word and music.

Further Information:
swr.de/swrclassic/schwetzinger-festspiele