“Pierrot Lunaire” by Arnold Schönberg

“Pierrot Lunaire” (1912), the first atonal masterpiece from the father of the twelve-tone technique, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), is transformed here into a piece of music theatre. The vocally demanding role of Pierrot is performed by Frauke Aulbert, a singer the international Press has dubbed the “Queen of avant-garde”.

On a set inspired by Man’s efforts to commune with the universe, musicians and stage performers execute minor rituals which they hope will bring them closer to the unknown to which they aspire. Making use of the innate theatricality of the 21 poems by Albert Giraud which Schoenberg set to music, the production brings together Schoenberg’s historic avant-garde, contemporary psychoacoustics, the moon-dreams of the post-Romantic Pierrot, and the bleakness of the world after the conquest of the Moon.

The production is directed by Alexandros Efklidis, an artist with a distinct aesthetic and significant achievements to his name in the sphere of music theatre: “In the original, the musings of the moon-struck Pierrot provide the pretext for an on-stage parable revolving around the concept of the avant-garde and the rhetoric of the end with which the avant-garde is always closely linked”.

The dissonArt ensemble is one of the leading contemporary music groups in Greece. Based in Thessaloniki, its members travel freely around Europe to wherever the heart of the new music beats.