Hold Your Breath

In a society where the individual’s life depends on the unemotional decisions of a selected few, a young woman tries to keep the memory of her grandmother alive. Suddenly, humankind faces some kind of creature and is seized and changed by its movements. Some claim to have created this mysterious octopus-like being. How is this creature related to human beings and do they have a hold on their lives?

Over several years, the composer Éna Brennan, the director and librettist Sir David Pountney and the visual artist Hugo Canoilas worked together in the Opernatelier to create a music theatre for the Werkstattbühne. Its main character right from the beginning is one of the most fascinating – and probably most intelligent – animals on this planet, an octopus. The singers’ voices and the dancers’ movements merge with the musicians whose sounds are electronically transmitted, thus creating a music theatre that engages all senses.

Commissioned by the Bregenzer Festspiele as part of the Opernatelier
In cooperation with the Kunsthaus Bregenz

Members of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg