Alice in Wonderland

Linke Wienzeile 6

1060 Wien

 

Alice falls down a rabbit-hole, deeper and deeper, as if plumbing the endless depths of her own self. Unsuk Chin’s opera Alice in Wonderland, first performed in 2007, revolves around the central question, “Who am I?” In this Wonderland, Alice encounters the permanently harassed White Rabbit, lands in a pool of tears with curious creatures, receives advice from a caterpillar, attends the Mad Hatter’s tea party and is made to give evidence in court by the cruel Queen of Hearts. The question of “Who am I?”, as simple as it is philosophical, leads Alice less to enlightenment than to more and more new questions. The Korean composer Unsuk Chin arrived in Hamburg in 1988 as a pupil of György Ligeti and is one of the most celebrated composers of modern times. In 2024 she won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, which is considered the “Nobel prize for music”. Her music deliberately defies labelling as a particular style, focusing instead on tone colour, light and dreams. In Alice in Wonderland, first performed in 2007 and her first opera, Unsuk Chin draws on a wide variety of styles, incorporating a great deal of humour and creating a fascinating kaleidoscope. Alice’s encounters become surreal dreamlike visions, far removed from anything resembling a fairy tale. Director Elisabeth Stöppler, making her debut at the MusikTheater an der Wien, embraces the work’s dreamy logic and tells the story of Alice in Wonderland as one person’s interminable encounter with herself.

In English with German and English surtitles

(Source: theater-wien.at)