For singers, dancer, solo instrumentalists, live electronics, and video projections
Based on poems and letters by Georg Trakl

October 21, 2005, 8:00 p.m. | Introduction at 7:15 p.m.
Additional performances: October 22, 23, 29, 30, and November 1, 2005, at 8:00 p.m. | Introduction at 7:15 p.m.
Discussion with the production team after each performance.
Open rehearsal: September 8, 2005, at 7:00 p.m.

Creative Team:
Composition and Concept: Hans Tutschku
Stage Direction: Françoise Rivalland
Live Electronics Design: Carl Faia
Live Video Processing: Mark Coniglio
Musical Director: Alexander G. Adiarte

Performers:
Singers: Anne-May Krüger, Sarah Maria Sun (Soprano)
Dancer: Hans-Georg Lenhart
Voice: Peter Rauch
Ensemble: ascolta

The Sweetness of Our Sad Childhood is a music theater project that explores the work of Georg Trakl, one of the leading figures of literary Expressionism, through multi-layered musical, scenic, and visual elements based on his texts and letters. His poems have previously served as the foundation for chamber and electroacoustic compositions by Hans Tutschku. In this piece, Tutschku combines his musical settings of the texts with an unconventional stage design, five instrumental soloists, two singers, a dancer, and video projections.
The audience is integrated into the performance space, blurring the boundaries between performers and observers. The stage direction concept by Françoise Rivalland was developed in close collaboration with the composer and reflects their shared artistic perspective: there can be no singular interpretation of Trakl’s poetry. Instead, a selection of poems and letter excerpts will be presented from multiple perspectives.
The texts chosen for the piece revolve around the theme of childhood. This includes poems and letter fragments directly referencing Trakl’s biography, his youth, and his profound connection to his sister, as well as other texts that evoke the composer’s own childhood memories.
The stage design incorporates natural materials, inspired by Trakl’s richly atmospheric world of nature—its extraordinary colors and moods. Elements such as water, stones, leaves, and branches serve both visual and sonic functions in the piece and reappear in the video projections, creating a deeply immersive environment. The result is a unique and moving music theater work that meditates on fragility through intimacy.
This project was made possible through the generous support of the Akademie Schloss Solitude.