12 musical-dramatic tableaux based on William Shakespeare Jost interprets Shakespeare’s tragedy as the ‘story of a surreal journey into the inner self’. In his version, Hamlet is sung by a female voice. In this way, Jost suggests universal validity beyond individual fate. Hamlet’s long, painful search for truth and insight is a reflection of the …
Author archives: Sabine
Mikropolis
The adventurous insect opera Spider Natalie, ant Annabelle, housefly Kostas, horsefly Erdal, ladybird Kurt and millipede Olli have a wonderful life – they live on a grass verge in the exciting city, their food is on the street and their lives are full of crazy adventures! But then Gesine the cricket is blown by a …
Rumor
Opera in 15 scenes Christian Jost based the libretto for Rumour on the famous novel The Sweet Smell of Death by Mexican author Guillermo Arriaga. The writer, screenwriter and director is also known for his films such as 21 Grams and Babel. In a remote Mexican village, a girl named Adela is found murdered. She …
Heart Sutra
Chamber opera in 4 scenes and a prologue My chamber opera Heart Sutra is based on the short story of the same name by legendary author Eileen Chang and is a mysterious love story set in 1930s Shanghai. I must confess that I am completely enamoured with Eileen Chang, arguably the most important author in …
Lover
Music-dance-theatre for mixed chorus and percussion This piece is a form of cultural dialogue: ancient Chinese love songs meet modern American poetry, a professional European choir meets a Buddhist-inspired ensemble of drummers who are also dancers, singers and performers. Western vocal polyphony encounters the sounds of millennia-old Asian gongs and drums with diameters of up …
Rote Laterne
Red Lantern Opera based on the novel “Wives and Concubines” by Su Tong The opera Red Lantern forms a trilogy together with my operas The Arabian Night and Rumour. Each focuses on modern young women caught up in the abysmal erotic surrealism of life. In The Arabian Night, Franziska is swept away by daily dreams …
Egmont
opera in 15 scenes
Reise der Hoffnung
Journey of Hope Opera in three acts My opera Journey of Hope – Voyage vers l’espoir deals with a contemporary refugee drama and can be understood as an act of complex human catastrophe. A family from Anatolia flees via Italy to Switzerland and loses not only their entire savings. They lose everything: mutual trust, love …
Nocturnal Movements
2 pieces for piano and 13 instrumentalists
one small step
for orchestra The musical documentary drama PHÖNIX RESURREXIT – ODYSSEY IN 4 PARTS by Christian Jost, premiered in 2001, tells the story of creation from the perspective of astronauts’ experiences. ONE SMALL STEP, whose title refers to Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, thus represents a thematic connection to Jost’s large-scale PHÖNIX. Both works are linked by …