An image rather than text is the point of departure for five new music theatre pieces at the tenth anniversary of the 2013 Pocket Operas. The stories for these had to be invented through texts, language, song, film, imagery, and other multimedia.
The starting point for “Finally Victim” is a photo that first appeared in an Italian newspaper in the summer of 2008 and caused outrage. Two young lifeless bodies lay in the sand, covered over the head and up to the ankles by beach towels; just visible in the background were a couple sunbathing. The photo caused a stir in the media for a few days until the world lost interest and event was superseded by new occurrences.
The topic: the visibly unheard-of. Every day we are confronted with images of reality, expertly selected and prepared for use as news by mass media. Do we still want to hear the stories behind the images? How much reality does contemporary music theatre need or even tolerate? And how do composers and directors deal with notions of reality?
Perhaps the artistic teams have researched or analysed media portrayals; but presumably they have chosen associations that relate to their specific sensation of the world as the starting point for their music theatre pieces?