On November 9th 2024, Copenhagen Phil premiered Melodrama #1, a groundbreaking performance intertwining Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9: From the New World with a poetic dramaturgical narrative and immersive visual design. This innovative format reimagines the classical concert experience, seamlessly blending music, storytelling, and visuals to explore the symphony’s profound historical and cultural roots.
Dvořák’s Portrait of America
Astrid Steiner’s visual design for Melodrama reimagines the themes that inspired Dvořák’s journey to 1890s America, where he composed this symphony. While the visuals focus on the cultural and natural inspirations behind the symphony—such as African American spirituals, Native American traditions, and the vast landscapes of America—they are entirely rooted in a modern context. Filmed in today’s America, the visuals explore how these enduring themes continue to resonate, offering a contemporary reflection of what could have inspired Dvořák if he had experienced America as it is today.
Steiner collaborated with contemporary American artists, such as painters, quilters and a Native American grass dancer, whose works emphasise the intersection of heritage and modernity. These visuals not only pay homage to Dvořák's appreciation of cultural diversity but also highlight America’s ongoing dialogue between tradition and innovation. The visuals bring to life the landscapes and cultural tapestry that shaped Dvořák’s work through a contemporary lens.
concert photos by Kim Matthäi Leland
video stills from ‘Melodrama - From The New World’
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Screenplay/Director Melodrama: Christian Lollike
Composer Melodrama: Matias Vestergard
Conductor: Christoph Gedschold
Performers: Juliana Zara, Simon Mathew, Al Agami
Staging / Set Design: Daniela Kerck
Costumes: Andrea Schmidt-Futterer, Frank Schönwald
Video: Astrid Steiner
Lighting: Klaus Krauspenhaar
Choreography: Rosana Ribeiro
Choir: Albert Horne
Children's Choir Coaching: Andreas Bollendorf, Judith Kunz
Dramaturgy: Constantin Mende
Photos: Xiomara Bender
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HR2 / Meinolf Bunsmann
"Audiences can look forward to grand mass scenes at the imperial court in Beijing, stunning costumes, (...) beautiful video projections reminiscent of a high-quality animated film – (...) the splendor is not only in the music but also in the visuals. Compliments to Yoel Gamzou! (...) It was a true spectacle, with at times bombastic and downright euphoric soundscapes. But Yoel Gamzou also handled the quieter moments wonderfully. Always captivating, always vivid (...) This was met with minutes of applause, including partial standing ovations."
FAZ / Axel Zibulski
This tightly woven interplay of opera narrative and composer biography works surprisingly well, allowing the opera’s original story to be told free of its traditional Orientalist embellishments.
Such enthusiastic applause hasn’t been heard at an opera premiere in Wiesbaden for a long time.
Music by Søren Nils Eichberg
Based on a novel by Margaret Atwood
Libretto by Hannah Dübgen
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Premiere: February 2023
Photographs: XIOMARA BENDER
Conductor: ALBERT HORNE
Director & Stage: DANIELA KERCK
Video Design: ASTRID STEINER
Costumes: ANDREA SCHMIDT-FUTTERER
Light Design: KLAUS KRAUSPENHAAR
Choreography: ROSANA RIBEIRO
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“ The change between the time levels works effortlessly and seamlessly through the staging and with the help of the sophisticated video projections. The projections, reminiscent of holograms or 3D films, seem to float freely in space“ - FAZ
‘‘Astrid Steiner's video art is significantly contributing to this digital futurism.” - IOCO - Kultur im Netz
“A strong visual experience” - Rhein Zeitung
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Based on the novel by the great Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the newly commission opera "Oryx and Crake" takes us into a fascinating dystopian future where genetic engineering rules the world. A new breed of humans – passive, docile Children of Crake who are physically flawless, void of envy and jealousy, do not understand violence or sexual drive and have no artistic ability or comprehension of technology – are to replace humanity here. Snowman is perhaps the last person to have survived the Great Plague. He is haunted by the memories of his best friend Crake and the mysterious Oryx, with whom they were both in love. In search of answers, he embarks on a journey through the wilderness that was once a great city, until uncontrolled genetic manipulation changed the face of humanity. How far will science go in order to optimise and manipulate human beings in order to achieve a permanently peaceful society? And at what cost?
‘In the beginning, however, a rumble of low strings unfolds a dark pull that combines perfectly with Astrid Steiner's magical video worlds in the sensitively told staging and in the stage design by Daniela Kerck. Hitchcock birds flit about the room in swarms, in the background the ruins of high-rise buildings rise from the ocean tides, the leaves are unhealthily red and phosphorescent rabbits hop poison green through a landscape of despair. In this one even manages to let a huge organ pig hover like a hologram.’
Wiesbadner Kurier, 20.2.2023
by Antonín Dvořák
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Premiere: January 2023
Photographs: KARL und MONIKA FORSTER
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Conductor: PHILIPP POINTNER
Directors: DANIELA KERCK, OLESYA GOLOVNEVA
Stage Design. DANIELA KERCK
Video Design: ASTRID STEINER
Costumes: ANDREA SCHMIDT-FUTTERER
Lighting Design: KLAUS KRAUSPENHAAR
Chorus Master: ALBERT HORNE
Choreography: MYRIAM LIFKA
Dramaturgy: ANIKA BARDOS
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“Astrid Steiner conjures up images of surreal beauty, poetically enigmatic. Fairytale-like, sensual and powerful images are created. Water flows in its various states of aggregation, creating fog and ice. When the witch appears, volcanic eruptions and whirlpools of fire can be seen. On the dark and largely empty stage in the 1st and 3rd acts, they characterize the scene with wave movements, spray and deep-sea infinity. The haunting images are reinforced by shots of a freediver floating perfectly in the water in a white Rusalka dress.”
Ioco - Kultur im Netz
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One of the most beloved Czech operas of all time, Antonín Dvořák’s famous "Rusalka" is part of the stable repertoire of many opera companies around the world. Composed as a "lyric fairy tale", the work deals with themes of love, redemption, identity, longing, communication and speechlessness. Rusalka, a water sprite, falls in love with a prince who comes to swim in the lake where she lives. She is willing to sacrifice everything for the man she loves and, despite all warnings, leaves her watery home to follow the prince. But she soon becomes disillusioned by the human world, wandering endlessly until, finally, she is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice.
by Jörg Widmann
Libretto: Peter Sloterdijk
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Premiere: May 2022
Photographs: XIOMARA BENDER
Conductor: ALBERT HORNE
Director & Stage Design: DANIELA KERCK
Video Design: ASTRID STEINER
Costumes: ANDREA SCHMIDT-FUTTERER
Light Design: KLAUS KRAUSPENHAAR
Choreography: SOMMER ULRICKSON
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“Incredibly memorable images” - IOCO - Kultur im Netz
“Powerful choral passages and the huge orchestral cast” - FAZ
“A magnificent work of art” - Frankfurter Neue Presse
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With its monumental orchestration, the work includes two choruses and an array of unusual instruments such as the shofroth, glass harmonica and an array of gongs. Widmann and his librettist, the well-known philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, convey a tale of biblical proportions, fusing the conflict between the Babylonians and Israelites with a story of two lovers. In a variation of the Orpheus myth, they only find each other after she, Inanna, has brought him, Tammu, back to life from the underworld. In the end, love conquers all, and Widmann brings his »Babylon« into the present day, into a time teeming with Babylonian complexity – a time in which unifying sentiments are, nevertheless, stronger than ever before.
by Giuseppe Verdi
Tiroler Festspiele Erl
Premiere: July2019
Photographs: Xiomara Bender
Conductor: AUDREY SAINT-GIL
Stage director and design: DANIELA KERCK
Video Design: ASTRID STEINER
Costumes: ANDREA SCHMIDT-FUTTERER
Choreography: ILJA VLASENKO
Light design: PHOENIX
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“… timeless insights into the oppression of women, warfare and dangerous nationalism were also gained through video projections. The fact that these video interventions never came across as banal or instructive can be attributed to the direction, the stage design and the musical framework.“ -Dolomitenstadt.at
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“The aim of placing the opera Aida in this "experimental arrangement" seems to me essential due the socio-political developments that are emerging today in the world. Broad layers of society are insecure due to complex developments such as globalization or political unrest - they long for a "strong state", as the election results in many countries clearly show. This points to the relevance potential in this conception: It is an examination of power structures, it shows how they work and how they deform and shape the people who have to live in an authoritarian regime. What would happen if the women's gains that we have made over the last years are simply reversed as access to contraception, the legalization of abortion, and increasing political influence of voters on politics. The staging shows also the endangering of liberal values in the face of developments that threaten to destabilize the status quo that has been reached.” DK May 2019
by Vincenzo Bellini
Theater Luzern (2016)
Photographs: T+T Fotografie
Conductor: HOWARD ARMAN
Director: NADJA LOSCHKY
Stage Design: DANIELA KERCK
Video Design: ASTRID STEINER
Costume Design: GABRIELE JAENECKE
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“This long-awaited freedom is symbolized with video animations of birds - strong images ” - Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen
“The evening begins with video projections (Astrid Steiner und Florian Tanzer), in which a constant metamorphosis of ravens form the base material... the motif of bird wings evolve and is also part of the staging.” - Zentral+
“... pretty are again the videos which on one hand double or supplement the characters in a shadow play, while on the other hand they anticipate the flames of the final stake or play with the motif of the raven.” - Die Südostschweiz
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The DRiP project is born from a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Daniel Rico and visual artist Astrid Steiner. Daniel presents his original compositions live on piano and drums complemented by video projections of prerecorded footage of himself playing. The imagery allows the audience to experience a 'band performance” by a single individual. On stage, Daniel switches from piano to drums in the blink of an eye. On video he takes you out on a journey where the drums and piano can be found on fields, cities, forests and mountains.
Astrid and Daniel met in their adopted home city of London. Filmed throughout 2017 the material was largely shot in England, Portugal and Austria and subsequently cinematographically edited by Astrid.
Music: Danny Rico
Video Design: Astrid Steiner
Videography: Álvaro Campos, Astrid Steiner, Johannes Pöllmann
With their piece 60 SECONDS SLOW the video duo Luma.Launisch lessen the pace with their photographic impressions of landscapes and urban scenery, focussing on intriguing background vignettes. With time almost standing still, the dream-like movement allows viewers to perceive an alternative interpretation, appreciating stories normally ignored or quickly forgotten happening in the backdrop.
The soundtrack to this 20 minute visual journey is composed by Qluster featuring Hans-Joachim Roedelius, one of the pioneers of electronic and ambient music.
