Schwestern im Geiste

Schwestern im Geiste ("Sisters in Spirit") is a musical written in German language by Peter Lund (lyrics), with music by Thomas Zaufke and choreography by Neva Howard. The musical was co-produced by the University of Arts Berlin and the Neukölln Opera. The issue of emancipation is told from the perspective of three young women in contemporary Berlin on the one hand and by three pastors daughters who live during the Victorian era in England on the other.

Schwestern im Geiste
MusicThomas Zaufke
LyricsPeter Lund
Productions2014 Neuköllner Oper Berlin (Germany)

Synopsis

The musical parallels the restricted lives of the Bronte girls with those of three women of today.[1] The 18-year-old Berlin pupils Milly and Aydin are close to graduating from high school. However the two young women do not seem to have anything else in common: Milly tries to enjoy life to the fullest, and the visit of techno parties, the use of designer drugs and noncommittal sex are an expression of her personal freedom and her seemingly self-determined life. The possibilities that would give her the degree she is ignoring. Aydin, however, feared not being able to leave high school, and a marriage with her cousin from Bursa is arranged, but she does not even know him. While Aydin wants to make her own decisions about her life, she believes her father's attempts to help her are more likely to find a good man than if she were to seek offers on her own. The two very different settings of the two students repeatedly provoke violent arguments and criticism of each other's way of life, conversations her teacher Lotte Birkner does not tolerate in the classroom, because she is annoyed by feminist debates. She tries to focus the interest of the pupils on the lesson: the literary work of the three Brontë sisters.

The novels and letters left by the Victorian-era English pastor's daughters Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë make them pioneers of emancipation. Cut off from the rest of the world, they write about the limited role of women prescribed by civil society and their visions of how it could be better. To be accepted by publishers, the Brontë sisters have to give themselves male pseudonyms. After their release the books are hotly debated by the British public, because of the progressive representation of women's fates, and also their own brother Branwell, who tried himself as a writer as well, is shocked when he recognizes the ambitious attempts of his sisters.

Reading the Brontës' works, the pupils and their teacher realise that what the Brontë sisters have left in their novels and letters, although set in the Victorian era, is quite sudden surprisingly contemporary,[2] and they identify themselves increasingly with the sisters. The young women of today and here and the three dead writers become "sisters in spirit".

Ultimately, the Brontës die young, but leave world literature that must be seen as a milestone of emancipation. Addicted to opium and alcohol, and full of despair about his own lack of genius, the brother dies first of tuberculosis. Shortly thereafter Emily follows and the second-youngest sister Anne a year later. After the death of all of her siblings Charlotte Brontë gives up the utopia of freedom and self-determination and marries the staid curate Arthur Nicholls, who urges her to stop writing. Even in today's Berlin, in terms of emancipation the story ends rather with a set of knowledge gains than with a "happy ending".

World premiere

Schwestern im Geiste was specifically written for graduates of the Universität der Künste (University of Arts) by the author and director Peter Lund who has worked here as a professor. The world premiere was the result of a longstanding cooperation between the Universität der Künste and Neuköllner Oper Berlin instead, and it took place there on March 13, 2014 in the Neukölln Opera, Berlin. The musical is subtitled by the author itself as a "musical journey through time".

Reviews

Ensembles and productions

Performance in Berlin, 2014

13 March to 25 April 2014[3]

Cast
  • Conductor: Hans-Peter Kirchberg / Tobias Bartholmeß
  • Choreography: Neva Howard
  • Director: Peter Lund
  • Stage: Ulrike Reinhard
  • Costumes: Anna Hostert

Actors

Musicians
  • Katja Reinbold (flute)
  • Christian Vogel / Max Teich (clarinet)
  • Max Nauta (bass)
  • Christin Dross / Sibylle Strobel (violin)
  • Anja-Susann Hammer (violoncello)

Notes
  1. The Bronte Babes in Berlin. Großes Lob von Kurt Gänzl für Berliner Musical-Student*innen, Kurt Gänzl, musical&Co, 20. April 2014.
  2. Theater & Bühne: Schwestern im Geiste, TIP Online (Access: March 13, 2014) Archived March 17, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Cast, Neuköllner Oper
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