It will remain an unforgettable experience for them: 15 children and young people from the Bad Goisern circus troupe GmC lighthouse have been rehearsing for two weeks together with professional artists from the Australian group “Circa” for a premiere in the Salzkammergut Capital of Culture year 2024: “Urlicht” combines circus air with music Gustav Mahler, in the contemporary version of the East Tyrolean Musicbanda Franui. Because today’s premiere at the Kongress & TheaterHaus Bad Ischl was sold out in no time, there is an additional date on Sunday at 3 p.m.
“We have to make the circus bigger,” this vision of Bad Goisern Mayor Leo Schilcher got the ball rolling: Thanks to the “GOISERN makes CIRCUS” initiative, the town has had acrobatically skilled youth for ten years. Through curator Brigitte Fürle, director of the Festspielhaus St. Pölten until 2022, the connection to the Australian circus troupe Circa was established, which has already taken on Beethoven’s “Ninth” with the Tonkunstler Orchestra: “Music is part of every circus, I love classical music “, says Circa leader and director Yaron Lifschitz, who is looking forward to meeting “Franui”. The ensemble, founded in 1993 and named following an alpine meadow above Innervillgraten, sees itself as a “transformer between classical, folk music, jazz and contemporary chamber music” and feels particularly close to Mahler, who spent his last three summers in Toblach: “He is our neighbor “, says Andreas Schett, trumpeter and musical director of Franui. For “Urlicht”, Franui draws from Mahler’s “Songs of a Traveling Journeyman”, the “Rueckert Songs” and the cycle “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”, from which the eponymous song “Urlicht” also comes. Compressed into a “pocket orchestra,” Franui “lets the music flow,” says Schett.
Guest performances in Germany are also planned, says Salzkammergut 2024 director Elisabeth Schweeger, looking to the future. (kasch)
Info: Congress & TheaterHaus Bad Ischl, duration: 70 minutes; Tickets for Sunday, 3 p.m.: ticketing.salzkammergut.at/de/buyingflow/tickets/10036
