Coming Up for Air

In the organizer's words:

World premiere | Opera in three acts | Libretto by Jessica Walker based on the novel by Sarah Leipciger | In English with German surtitles

1 intermission | ages 14 and up

Three worlds, three bodies of water, three lives merge into one breath: Anouk, a young writer, struggles for every breath because she has cystic fibrosis. The struggle for breath leads her on a journey into the past, to another country, to another woman. Spellbound, she reconstructs the mysterious story of the "Inconnue de la Seine", the mysterious unknown dead woman from the Seine. As Anouk immerses herself in this French tragedy, she recognizes the connections between her life, that of the unknown woman and that of a Norwegian doll maker.

The latter, scarred by the loss of his drowned son, develops a doll that can be used to learn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. For the doll's face, he chooses the death mask of the "Inconnue de la Seine" - her smile is supposed to save lives from then on. This opera connects three lives across the flow of time. Leipzig-based composer Bernd Franke, who explores musical as well as social and topographical boundaries, has created a life-affirming opera, which is carried by hope and wanders between times and countries. In the end, everything is one and we are a part of it.