...Maurizio Kagel, "Mare nostrum"

I was always a big fan of the music by Maurizio Kagel. I certainly do not know all of his works, but the ones I have listened to so far, have convinced me that Kagel is a composer of the highest rank. Most important for me is his humor which distinguishes him from his peers.

Currently the Wiener Kammeroper is staging a new production of Kagel's chamber opera "Mare nostrum", which translates to "our sea." The opera tells us the story about the colonization of Amazonia, but with swapped roles. The intruders are not men from Europe but natives from the conquered countries, which are going to teach the Europeans their way of civilization.

Kagel limits himself to a very sparse orchestration. He merely uses oboe, flute, cello, and guitar, which are placed on the stage, and percussion and harp, which are offstage. Due to the limitations of the orchestration, the sound is often faint, monophonic and pointillstic, but also strange and exotic. There are also only two actors, one native and one European, which are changing between singing and speaking.

Ben Connor (Amazonian) & Rupert Enticknap (European)
Copyright Armin Bardel

"Mare nostrum" was written in 1975, and it seems to me heavily bound to this time. It breathes the air of post-colonialism and indulges deeply in the guilt of Europeans and what they considered to be "civilizing". Without any doubt, there is an irreparable guilt on part of the Europeans, but would it make an ethical difference if the roles were changed? In my opinion, civilizing other cultures is a crime, notwithstanding who is civilizing by whom. This might be the major flaw of Kagel's work, and he is not the only one falling into this trap.

Hans Werner Henze similarly fall for this idea in "Floß der Medusa", which is also dealing partly with civilizing other cultures, but with a different outcome.
But is an opera really the best way to deal with this part of colonization? Kagel himself, who was Argentine, but spent a lot of time in Europe, might have had an interest in setting the ordeals of his ancestors to music. But there is always the question if the attempt of making these ordeals fitting onto the stage of the opera is rather diminishing them than dignifying.

After the opera, I could not help but notice people complaining about the music. However, I do not share their complaints. Of course, there were no melodies you could sing on your way back home, there were no harmonies you can easily find on the piano. But the music nevertheless had a feeling of wholeness, which I really admire. Kagel seems not to be interested in beautiful sounds. He often employs only one instruments, sometimes only the surface of an object on the stage. The music is tied strongly to the acting, and this inseparability makes it interesting for me.

Ben Connor (Amazonian), Rupert Enticknap (European) &
Members of the Wiener KammerOrchesters. Copyright Armin Bardel

The performance of counter tenor Rupert Enticknap (the European), Ben Connor (the Amazonian) and the instrumentalists was superb. Sometimes I wished they had more opportunity to show their immense and various talents. Especially Connor's delivery of the distorted and meaning-enriched text was impressing. The Wiener Kammeroper is certainly the place for a work like this. But if a work like this is still worth to be performed is another question. The moral implications and the highly visible political ambition is something that does not transport itself easily into our time.