Adam und Eva

Libretto von Anne-May Krüger nach Peter Hacks’ 'Adam und Eva' (dt.)

colS,S,M,A,Bar,B,actor/actress; mixed chorus(3.3.3.3);
0.0.2(II=bcl).-0.0.3.0-perc(2):finger cyms/3tgl/anvil(sm)/ride cyms(lg)/claves/wdbl/flexatone/BDs/crot/vib/glsp-accordion-strings(3[I=elec.vln].0.3.3[I=elec.vlc].1); live electronics

Peter Hacks' examination of the Fall of Man focuses on the theme of freedom: only by acting in contradiction to God does man become like him - as the creator of himself - and thus free. The loss of paradise is not a verdict on life in the vale of tears, but a necessary prerequisite for it to be attained at all, namely in striving for the unattainable "state of society, which is not, but which must be imagined as the goal of all rational action" (Hacks, Versuch über das Libretto). A dialectical view of people's entry into the real world. The brittle and unruly matter from which God forms his world has its own stubbornness. But its potential arises from this: the yes now has a value, because the no has also become a possibility. So, as Gabriel complains, this new world is not round - it is uneven. The impossibility of the perfect state, which by definition would also contain its opposite, results in the reality of the imperfect. Both Hacks and God take a loving look at this. According to Gott, creating the world did not cost him any effort, but "a kind of smile".

The transposition of Hacks' play into music theater makes it possible to highlight central topoi for which storytelling in and through music is particularly suitable. These include the time that begins with the Fall of Man: Adam and Eve begin their finite life by biting the apple, while God and the angels remain in timelessness. On a conceptual level, this leads to an opening towards multimedia narrative modes. Video and electronics destabilize the perception of space and time as defined or linear, but also function as a narrative level for subtexts and non-materialized potentials, as they can be linked to those worlds created from light - instead of the material world - favoured by Gabriel. The need to translate Hacks' witty and sharp discourses into music-theatrical modes of representation also leads to the fanning out of the figure of God into a multitude of personal manifestations. The omnipotence of God symbolized in this way also becomes tangible as an obstacle in his permanent omnipresence: "An omnipotent God is also a problem dramaturgically" (Kai Köhler). The linguistically brilliant and differentiated examination of the subject of the Fall of Man thus finds its expression in the multi-layered work architecture of music theater, whose potential for the simultaneous representation of different time structures and conflicting states allows Hacks' original to be grasped and illuminated anew.

About Peter Hacks (1928-2003)
Born in Breslau, Hacks moved to the GDR in 1955. After overcoming Brecht's influence, the approach of a "post-revolutionary dramaturgy" is of central importance to his work. One of his most frequently performed dramas is Gespräch im Hause Stein about the absent Mr. von Goethe (1974). Hacks is the author of dramas, radio plays, essays, poems and children's books.
Anne-May Krüger & Mike Svoboda

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