Oehring/Schiphorst: triumphant premiere of Effi Briest in Bonn

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(August 2001)

Helmut Oehring and Iris ter Schiphorst scored a triumph with press and public for the staging of their opera Effi Briest in Bonn in March. The work explores the inner psychological world of Theodor Fontane’s celebrated novel Effi Briest (1895), describing an ill-fated marriage set in the Biedermeier period. However, rather than retelling the narrative, it teases out strands and reassembles them in parallel montage, enhanced in Bonn by the abstract and stylised production of film-maker Ulrike Ottinger.

The cast of four stage soloists migrates between depicting Fontane’s characters and assuming multiple aspects of Effi Briest’s psyche. This splintering of personality is reflected in the artists’ differing performance styles: the wit and vulnerability of chansonnier Ingrid Caven, the graphic gestures of the deaf mime artist Christina Schönfeld, the virtuoso singing of female soprano Salome Kammer, and the other-worldly timbre of male soprano Arno Raunig. As in many Oehring/Schiphorst works a solo trumpet emerges from the supporting ensemble and the soundworld is transformed through live electronics.

“Even before her marriage turned into a ghostly prison, Effi had experienced intimidation in her parents’ home. The music creates a theatrical background in sombre colours. A threatening rumble with nervous interjections, flickerings and tremblings...a static landscape of reduced expressiveness. But as such it mirrors the loss of communication experienced by the main characters... the artistic achievement of this wonderful team feeds yet again on the longing for the fulfilment of longing, and this is, in this work, very beautiful.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“The literary source appears to have served as a template onto which the creators could demonstrate what they could do with the genre of opera. They question conventions – and ignore them. For instance the division of labour in composing the work clearly represents a radical break from the classical tradition. The authors equally did not compromise their vision in the hope that their work would have a better chance to enter the repertoire. The opera Effi Briest is in the truest sense of the word a unique Gesamtkunstwerk.” Bonn General Anzeiger

Oehring and Schiphorst’s future projects include rumgammeln + warten commissioned by the Basel European Music Month for premiere on 7 November by Ensemble Aventure. This work sets out to explore themes of eroticism and fantasy, particularly how they are communicated by deaf people. A large-scale stagework, BLAUWALDDORF, follows next April at the Aachen Theater, combining aspects of Andersen’s Little Mermaid, Monteverdi’s Arianna, Bach’s Cantata 21 and Schiller’s Maid of Orleans: the mermaid’s sacrifice of her voice in order to become human is intercut with laments on the loss of speech, love and home.

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Oehring/Schiphorst: triumphant premiere of Effi Briest in Bonn

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