Prof. David Roesner open lecture “Christoph Marthaler and the musicality of the European director”

Open lecture “Christoph Marthaler and the musicality of the European director” on 25^th October, 2017 from 18:00 till 19:30 at the Goethe-Institut Riga (1 Torņa Street).

The Swiss director Christoph Marthaler has been one of the most successful and influential theatre makers of the past 25 years in Europe, winning many major prizes, amongst them the Europe Theatre Prize in Taormina in 1998. He has made his name with quirky and completely original „projects" fusing absurdist texts and scenarios with music and a kind of „slapstick in slow-motion" as one critic termed it. Marthaler then also subjected classics from the dramatic canon to his unique theatrical style –  from Goethe's Faust I & II to Shakespeares Twelfth Night and Tempest, from Horváths Kasmir und Karoline to Büchner's Dantons Tod. In addition, he has also directed opera production in Salzburg, Paris, Bayreuth, Hamburg etc. to great acclaim.  Amongst other characteristics of his working method and aesthetics, critics have often highlighted the „musicality" of his theatre: in his lecture, David Roesner will seek to differentiate what this term might mean and how it might help to approach the works of Christoph Marthaler, which despite being quite humorous have also proved challenging for audiences and critics alike.

The Latvian Academy of Culture together with Goethe-Institut Riga welcomes all students to attend open guest lectures by professor of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München David Roesner. The lectures will take place on 25th and 26th October, 2017 both at the Goethe-Institut Riga as well as at the theatre house of the Latvian Academy of Culture „Zirgu Pasts”. During his visit prof. David Roesner will give a workshop “Music as Text. Text as Music” to the master’s students of Theatre Art, however, two other lectures are open to all those interested.

The working language in all lectures is English. 

David Roesner is a professor of Theatre and Music-Theatre at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He has previously worked at the Universities of Hildesheim, Exeter and Kent. In 2003 he published his first monograph on 'Theatre as Music', followed by major publications on Theatre Noise. The Sound of Performance (with Lynne Kendrick, CSP, 2011), Composed Theatre. Aesthetics, Practices, Processes (with Matthias Rebstock, Intellect, 2012) and his latest monograph Musicality in Theatre. Music as Model, Method and Metaphor in Theatre-Making (Ashgate, 2014). David also works as a theatre musician and sound designer.

For a full list of publications and projects see: http://mhn.academia.edu/DavidRoesner.