Scoring:
Soli: Penelope (soprano, experimentel singing), Odysseus (Baritone, actor), Athene/Hermes (Countertenor)
orchestra: 4.4.4.4. 3.4.3.1. perc(4) str: 19.0.8.5.4.
choir: 30 parts (12S6A6T6B)
Chamber ensemble (solo musicians on stage): fl.ob.clar trp perc acc vl.va.vc
about 14-16 dancers


The Odyssee as the theme of an opera at first glance this would seem to be a return to a subject of the nineteenth century. But Isabel Mundry is not concerned with relating the history of the hero. The work focuses on aspects on perception that intersect the Homeric text in a multitude of ways: the loss of special and temporal orientation, the confrontation with the unknown, the flight into forgetting, the experience of foreign gazes and inhospitable spaces. This is what is contemporary about the Odayssey fort he composer and this is what also informs the music-theatre concept behind the work. From the beginning Mundry was interested in creating a music theatre text that operates on the margins of opera and choreography.

"I felt that for the transposition of this work, which is at the juncture of myth and novel, to the musical stage, it was essential that the categories of time and space not be stable factors but should become the object of the interpretation through the action. Thus I decided not to transpose a selected chapter, but to musically arrange the composition of the entire book and as in the book to let the music begin at a moment in which Odysseus's adventure is already over. In the course of the piece, this is related three times from different perspectives: first from the point of view of the council of the gods, as an "overture" in compressed time; then as a recollection experienced by Odysseus; and finally as a narration recounting when Odysseus and Penelope meet again.
I project the variety of spatial perception in the Odyssey onto a sound-space plane: in Odysseus's memory, the landscapes of adventure are depicted on the stage as permanently shifting spatial sounds. The human voice also explores spatiality, from the intimate sound of the breath to the song of a soloist and the chorus. The interlocking of time planes is also reflected by the respective instrumental track pursued by the three performers (Penelope, Odysseus, Athena/Hermes), a track that articulates a temporality freed from the characters. Thus Odysseus does not sing while he is still pursuing his journey. The performer is musically represented by a trumpet at first; only after his arrival in Ithaca does he take on a voice."
(Isabel Mundry)


Bibliography:

Gerhard, Kristina: Der Raum- und Zeitbegriff im Werk Isabel Mundrys unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihres Musiktheaterwerks Ein Atemzug die Odyssee, Diplomarbeit der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Wintersemester 2005/06.
Hagedorn, Volker: Carlos Wut, Penelopes Atem. Konzepte der Liebe in der Musik vom Minnesang bis zur Moderne, in: 128. Das Magazin der Berliner Philharmoniker, 2016, Heft 2, pp. 17-22.
Hiekel, Jörn Peter: Ein Theater der Suchbewegungen. Zum Musiktheaterwerk Ein Atemzug die Odyssee, in: Isabel Mundry, hrsg. von Ulrich Tadday (= Musik-Konzepte. Neue Folge, Sonderband), München: edition text+kritik 2011, pp. 19-36.
ders.: Die Kunst des Übergangs. Einige Neuansätze im Musiktheater der letzten Jahrzehnte, in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 177 (2016), Heft 3, pp. 18-24.
Mundry, Isabel: Gefaltete Zeit. Über die Verschränkung von Erinnern und Vergessen in meinem Musiktheater Ein Atemzug die Odyssee, in: Resonanzen. Vom Erinnern in der Musik (= Studien zur Wertungsforschung, Band 47), Wien u. a.: Universal Edition 2007, pp. 205-220.
Mundry, Isabel: Verborgene Korrespondenzen, in: High Low. Hoch- und Alltagskultur in Musik, Kunst, Literatur, Tanz und Kino, hrsg. von Corina Caduff und Tan Wälchli (= Kaleidogramme 25), Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos 2007, pp. 27-37.