Over the Wall – Music Theater for Youth Choir and Orchestra

Association Soutien Amwaj, Lille, France
 

The corona pandemic has closed borders again that had long been eliminated. In addition to national borders, we are also experiencing other borders, such as those between rich and poor, the system-relevant and the non-system-relevant, the economically secure and the precarious. This new reality allows us to look at a region of the world where borders, barriers and walls are part of everyday life, even in the time before corona: Palestine.

The Palestinian Amwaj Choir is issuing a composition commission to the composer Camille van Lunen and the librettist Cornelia Köhler. The commission is a musical interpretation of social issues, universal values, human rights and freedom movements, made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The opera’s libretto is based on Waleed Daqqa’s contemporary youth novel The Oil's Secret Tale and takes up the fairytale-like tone of the original without losing sight of its social explosiveness. Over the Wall describes the overcoming of borders, a social, political and historical theme, when four Palestinian siblings visit their imprisoned father in jail. They only succeed with the help of a magic olive tree, the symbol of nature still intact.

Further Information:
amwajchoir.org