Interview with Krystian Lada, director of „Abendzauber“

A conversation with Krystian Lada, director of the music theater installation Abendzauber and programme director of the artistic programme of the Ruhrtriennale 2024-26. The interview was conducted by Deniz Bolat from the festival's dramaturgy team.

What inspired you to combine the works of Anton Bruckner and Björk? 

This project actually started with Bruckner's choral compositions. We often know Bruckner as the expert in constructing massive symphonic architectures. However, I was surprised to discover his vulnerable A-cappella chorus pieces, which are rarely performed. What captivated me in his compositions was not just the music in this very romantic idiom, but also the poetry he used. The texts he used describe the physical and emotional experience of being in the nature, in a very detailed way. From our 21st-century perspective, experiencing nature has become scarce due to urban living and limited time to escape the city. Today, nature often features in the news only in the context of natural catastrophes. Bruckner's compositions resonated with me as a genuine glimpse into what might be our future: a time when we might no longer experience nature as we used to do. In this apocalyptic vision, Bruckner's pieces could become a capsule preserving the spiritual and engaged experience of nature. While exploring this idea, I organically thought about Björk's songs. Björk continues to explore the human relationship with nature, adding the direct voice of nature itself. In her works, nature not only speaks back to us but also expresses anger and pain, demanding a different relationship. This is how the link between Bruckner and Björk was generated. I had previously co-created an opera based on Björk's Medúlla in Brussels, so I was familiar with her musical language. At the same time, as the program director of the Ruhrtriennale, I was seeking something out of the box for CHORWERK RUHR. Thus, my engagement with these two composers was both an organic evolution and a practical choice for diversifying the repertoire. 

How does the industrial setting of the Mischanlage influence your staging? 

The building of the Mischanlage was crucial to the programming for 2024. I realized we needed a project that would take the architecture of our venues as a starting point, resonating with Gerard Mortier's vision of “creations” —multidisciplinary works that engage with the space and history of the buildings. The Mischanlage is a monument of industrialization, created to tame and profit from nature by processing coal. It symbolizes the human attempt to control and exploit nature. 

Standing inside this building, one feels its troubled history in its concrete walls and rusted metal features. It resembles a slaughterhouse, representing transformation—a process where raw nature is turned into something useful for humans but simultaneously becomes a weapon against nature itself. This brutality and transformation made it an ideal setting for staging Abendzauber as an installation that resonates with the architecture and history of the Mischanlage, emphasizing that as long as a process is ongoing, it can be changed and given new form.

You already mentioned the role of nature in your production. How do you incorporate this theme into the staging? 

I focus on the human experience of nature and how we approach it. I want to invite the audience to travel through the Mischanlage, starting from the late 19th century romantic view of nature as a mirror of the human soul and a source of inspiration. As the work progresses, the audience will encounter today's reality: a nature that is no longer sublime but raging and roaring - suffering from the climate catastrophe. Our production reflects on how we, as a civilisation, have betrayed, abused, and colonised nature for our own purposes. It highlights the urgent need to care for nature, even if it means rethinking how we organise our society. This journey through the building symbolises the transformation of our relationship with nature, moving from romantic idealisation to a recognition of the current crisis. 

Can you describe the creative process behind developing this installation in such a unique architectural space? 

As a stage director, I always work on site, which means engaging with the architecture, institutional structure, or historical context. For this production, three aspects were crucial. First, the context of the Ruhrtriennale, born from Mortier's vision of creating new formats of music theatre that dialogue with the architecture and history of the space. Second, artistic intuition played a significant role. Discovering Bruckner's dusty scores and intuitively connecting them with Björk's work was a journey similar to walking through a forest, driven by an intuition. 

The third aspect is the collective way I work with my team. Although we have specific roles, everyone contributes to the conceptual and creative input. This interdependence of different art forms—where light, stage design, choreography, and music cannot be separated—is what makes operatic work unique. 

We also strive to create analog experiences in theatre, which are unique and idiomatic compared to digital art forms. This approach makes the production difficult to capture on video or on photos, emphasising the necessity of being present “here and now" to experience it, much like experiencing nature firsthand. 

How did you select the rest of your artistic team for this project? 

It takes a village to create a new work. First, I gather the village, often including people from previous collaborations. Many members of the creative team come from the structure of the Ruhrtriennale itself. I believe in the creative inclusion of the existing team, tapping into their expertise and talent. For example, instead of bringing in an external costume designer, I collaborate with the in-house team, promoting a sustainable approach and making use of the available resources.

How do you coordinate the collaboration between the various people in your artistic team? 

I prepare extensively in advance, involving detailed individual discussions and experiments. For example, one scene involves different smells of nature, which required spending days in a perfumery atelier to understand and develop the scents. This micro focus on details is balanced with a macro perspective, ensuring the overall structure and coherence of the production. 

I also adapt to the working styles of the team members, fostering a dialogue between their processes and my routines. This collaborative approach allows for flexibility and innovation, ensuring that everyone's expertise and creativity contribute to the final production. 

What was the process of arranging Björk's songs for CHORWERK RUHR like? 

Björk's music is idiomatic and often written for specific voices, so we commissioned arrangements for the choir. We chose Marc Schmolling, who knows CHORWERK RUHRwell, and Caroline Shaw, who understands Björk's music deeply. Caroline's approach to composition, similar to Björk's, involves a lot of improvisation and working from specific voices. This collaboration marries different traditions of vocal expression, broadening CHORWERK RUHR's musical and artistic spectrum.

What challenges did you encounter when integrating choral and pop music? 

Surprisingly not many. The challenge often lies in people's perception of musical genres rather than the music itself. Björk's work defies categorisation, blending elements of pop, world music, and extended vocal technics. As an opera stage director, my fascination with vocal expression transcends these labels. The power of the human voice, its physical waves, and the emotional responses it triggers are central to my work. Thus, integrating Björk's music into a choral context felt very organic - beyond the artificiality of rigid genre divisions. 

What do you hope the audience takes away from Abendzauber? 

I don't believe in preaching to the audience. My aim is to create an experience that is visceral, bodily, and sensual, rather than exclusively intellectual. I hope this installation inspires questions about our relationship with nature. The work should provide a context for seeing and thinking about our interaction with nature from different angles, focusing on what we do to nature, what we expect from it, and what nature can expect from us. 

I wish to create a context for the audience to reflect on how we are part of nature and how distancing ourselves from it also distances us from ourselves. This production is an invitation to move from the ego-system to an eco-system: to leave the antropocentric perspective on the nature, in which we as the rulers of the nature, and recognise our role and responsibility as part of a larger ecosystem.