Vom Mädchen, das nicht schlafen wollte

Martin Baltscheit (G)

2S,MS,2T,2Bar,Bbar,2B,mixed choir;1(=picc,afl).2(II=corA).2(I=Ebcl,II=bcl).2(II=dbn)-4.2.3(III=btrbn).1-timp.perc(4)-hp-pft(=cel)-strings

About the girl who did not want to sleep is a wonderful fantastical story about growing up, death, first love, and above all about the power of friendship. Lena finds a lifeless bird under a tree. It’s only sleeping, slaims her friend Leander, but Lena is certain: “Whoever sleeps like that never wakes up again.” Afraid of not waking up herself, Lena decides not to go to sleep any more. For days, for weeks. Neither parents nor doctors can dissuade her from this decision. As the villagers increasingly perceive her sleeplessness as a threat, Leander takes his girlfriend on a search for a sleep medicine. It is a long journey on which they experience many adventures, and get to know strange characters: three raftsmen, a gravedigger, a bird princess, and the moon, who – sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner – accompanies them on their way, and whose moon cake exudes such a delectable fragrance that it could even bring the dead back to life.

A story about growing up, about death as sleep’s brother, and above all a tale about the meaning of life.... Composer Marius Felix Lange, born in 1968 in Berlin, wrote for it an expressive, vivid, and brilliantly made music that easily carries the young and also the older spectators through the one and a half hours. (Ingo Joddick, Rheinischen Post, 17 February 2014)