Work of the Week - Herbert Willi: Brother of Sleep
Silence is my miracle of listening 
(Herbert Willi)
On Tuesday 3rd November 2009 a new staging of Herbert Willi’s opera Brother of Sleep (Schlafes Bruder) will open at the Museumsquartier in Vienna directed by Leonard Prinsloo. Together with the Vienna Neue Oper’s Sprechchor, the Amadeus-Ensemble will bring the opera’s protagonist’s “inner hearings” to life for the Viennese audience.
Schlafes Bruder tells the story of the musician Elias Alder and is based on a novel by Robert Schneider who wrote the libretto in collaboration with the composer. Living in an isolated mountain community, Alder’s unusual powers of hearing lead to his demise as the wordless villagers and their inability to relate to each other take their toll on him. Ultimately he takes his own life by depriving himself of sleep - “one who loves doesn’t sleep, one who sleeps doesn’t love” - in an ending which, contrary to Schneider’s bleak conclusion, incorporates ideas of love and hope.
Repeat performances will take place on the 6th, 7th and 8th November.
Photo: Stadttheater Klagenfurt 2008
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