Wen Liu has a sense for the microstructure of sounds and the ability to tie that into larger formal contexts. She combines instrumental and vocal gestures to create an individual musical language and has a strong awareness of sound.
The volume “Sehsüchtig. Sehsüchtig.” (“Longing. Longing”) by Peter Hendriks is the photographic diary of a drug-addicted woman who earns her living and her addiction through prostitution. Wen Liu makes this story the starting point of her pocket opera “Painted Love” in terms of content and form.
Four miniatures by Wen Liu – interspersed among the other short operas of the evening – make up the musically and theatrically fragmented diary of a woman who sells her body because she has to sell it. Her inner voice meets the view from the outside, as her character in the piece is embodied doubly – by a singer and an actress. She vacillates between rebellion and resignation. The best intentions are made, only to come to nothing again… The man, in this case the suitor, remains true to himself, once demanding and then again seeking closeness. A child and the murmuring, humming, buzzing, youthful choir interfere as both observers and commentators.
Painted Love – Day 1 to Day 4
Music theatre for soprano, two actors, chorus and ensemble
based on a story by Thomas Mann
Commissioned work for the 2017 Pocket Opera Festival Salzburg
Music Wen Liu
Director Thierry Bruehl
She Sachika Ito / Constanze Passin
He Klaus Nicola Holderbaum
