Work of the Week – Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon

Inspired by the first science fiction film ever made, on 18 February 2023, Andrew Norman’s new arrangement of A Trip to the Moon will excitingly receive its world premiere at the Hamburg State Opera. Now written with German libretto and orchestrated for chamber ensemble, this debut will be conducted by Luiz de Godoy along with imaginative staging by Stephan Witzlinger for the Opera Stabile venue.

Norman's first dramatic work, A Trip to the Moon, was originally commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2017 with English text provided by the composer himself. Following this success, the Hamburg State Opera has now commissioned a revised version for a smaller ensemble with German translation by Joscha Schaback. This one-hour melodrama accompanies the filmmaker Georges Méliès who sets out to explore the moon with the company of four scatter-brained astronomers. As they research this new land and try to repair their broken rocket, they meet mysterious aliens, who in turn have to deal with their own dangers.

By Steampunk Rocket into Space: A Trip to the Moon by Andrew Norman

Norman’s children’s play was originally influenced by Georges Méliès silent film, A Trip to the Moon, written in 1902. The retro-futuristic world presented in this ground-breaking motion picture inspired Norman to bring this story to the stage for both amateurs and professionals as a parable for how we ourselves deal with strangers:

A Trip to the Moon contains a whole new language - Lunar. As it turns out, inventing a new language is quite a lot of work. But I was excited by the potential of combining even syllables with pitches and movements to create a new gestural world. My aim was to put the audience in the role of the "other" who has to find their way around without the help of a common language. (Andrew Norman)

At Hamburg’s Opera Stabile, A Trip to the Moon can be seen in a total of 15 performances until 05 March.

Links:

Andrew Norman: Composer profile

A Trip to the Moon: Work details

Website Hamburg State Opera 

photo: Atelier Sommerland - stock.adobe.com