Zwickau
Open Schumann 2026: “Ich schieß’ auf den Adler!” (WP)
“Powder is black / Blood is red / Golden flickers the flame!” sings the children's choir. Today, this martial freedom anthem by Robert Schumann sounds haunting and pure. The 1848 revolution sparked something in the Zwickau-born composer!
The idea of an all-German nation moved many—shaping not only the painstakingly invoked cultural identity of the Germans, but also Romantic painting, poetry, and music. At the same time, Schumann aimed for the celestial. With his music,
he attempts to counter all earthly misery—tinnitus, heartache, the French—with the “radiance of the truth of art.” A Romantic through and through, Schumann set out to discover the possibilities hidden in reality through playful imagination and curiosity.
170 years after Schumann's death in an “insane asylum,” we reanimate his era. Drawing from Schumann’s oeuvre, this world premiere conjures a Romanticism whose ideals have long faded yet remain ever-present: escapism, a longing for pristine nature, and a passion for all things eerie and supernatural.
The ensemble and a band of four Schumanns let Romantic motifs and works collide with our present day. However, the resurrection of Schumann, Novalis, Eichendorff, and Frankenstein’s monster threatens to fail. Fortunately, the children’s choir provides solace for unfulfilled yearnings. And introduces us to contemporary Romantics like Rosalía, Heiner Müller, and Donna Haraway. Together with them, they invent a new world in which no one ever has to feel ashamed of being happy again.
Commissioned by Theater Plauen-Zwickau, this musical mosaic of Romantic and contemporary fragments brings the perpetual motion of nature and everyday life to a standstill. Duisburg director Mizgîn Bilmen weaves bodies, language, and music into a haunting total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk).
Under her direction, a live band, ensemble, children's choir, and Sebastian Undisz’s rewritings of Schumann's Romanticism unfold a German story of Romanticism that has never been told like this before.
Director: Mizgîn Bilmen, Concept/Collage: Mizgîn Bilmen, Kornelius Luther, Stage/Costumes: Sabine Mäder, Music/Composition: Sebastian Undisz, Dramaturgy: Kornelius Luther, Cast: Claudia Lüftenegger, Ute Menzel, Nicole Widera; Joshua Dahmen, Adrian Djokić, Ben Hartmann, and the small choir of Diesterweg-Gymnasium Plauen directed by Ulrike Martin. Band: Sebastian Undisz (grand piano, synthesizer), Daniel Klein (drums), Patrick Schanze (guitar, trumpet), Benjamin Richter (electric bass, double bass)
Ticket prices: €10.50–€39.00
Soiree: September 21 | 6:00 pm | Free admission
Open rehearsal: September 21 | 7:00 pm | Free admission
Premiere: September 26 | 7:30 pm
The idea of an all-German nation moved many—shaping not only the painstakingly invoked cultural identity of the Germans, but also Romantic painting, poetry, and music. At the same time, Schumann aimed for the celestial. With his music,
he attempts to counter all earthly misery—tinnitus, heartache, the French—with the “radiance of the truth of art.” A Romantic through and through, Schumann set out to discover the possibilities hidden in reality through playful imagination and curiosity.
170 years after Schumann's death in an “insane asylum,” we reanimate his era. Drawing from Schumann’s oeuvre, this world premiere conjures a Romanticism whose ideals have long faded yet remain ever-present: escapism, a longing for pristine nature, and a passion for all things eerie and supernatural.
The ensemble and a band of four Schumanns let Romantic motifs and works collide with our present day. However, the resurrection of Schumann, Novalis, Eichendorff, and Frankenstein’s monster threatens to fail. Fortunately, the children’s choir provides solace for unfulfilled yearnings. And introduces us to contemporary Romantics like Rosalía, Heiner Müller, and Donna Haraway. Together with them, they invent a new world in which no one ever has to feel ashamed of being happy again.
Commissioned by Theater Plauen-Zwickau, this musical mosaic of Romantic and contemporary fragments brings the perpetual motion of nature and everyday life to a standstill. Duisburg director Mizgîn Bilmen weaves bodies, language, and music into a haunting total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk).
Under her direction, a live band, ensemble, children's choir, and Sebastian Undisz’s rewritings of Schumann's Romanticism unfold a German story of Romanticism that has never been told like this before.
Director: Mizgîn Bilmen, Concept/Collage: Mizgîn Bilmen, Kornelius Luther, Stage/Costumes: Sabine Mäder, Music/Composition: Sebastian Undisz, Dramaturgy: Kornelius Luther, Cast: Claudia Lüftenegger, Ute Menzel, Nicole Widera; Joshua Dahmen, Adrian Djokić, Ben Hartmann, and the small choir of Diesterweg-Gymnasium Plauen directed by Ulrike Martin. Band: Sebastian Undisz (grand piano, synthesizer), Daniel Klein (drums), Patrick Schanze (guitar, trumpet), Benjamin Richter (electric bass, double bass)
Ticket prices: €10.50–€39.00
Soiree: September 21 | 6:00 pm | Free admission
Open rehearsal: September 21 | 7:00 pm | Free admission
Premiere: September 26 | 7:30 pm
Dates
Venue
Theater Plauen-Zwickau
Neuberinplatz
08056 Zwickau
