Justice
Preview
Infos & Cast
About
Infos & Cast
Opera by Hèctor Parra
Libretto by Fiston Mwanza Mujila from a screenplay by Milo Rau
World premiere
New production in co-production with Festival Tangente and the Festspielhaus St. Pölten
22, 26 January 2024 — 8PM
24 January 2024 — 7PM
28 January 2024 — 3PM
Sung in French with French and English surtitles
Duration: approx. 1h40 without intermission*
Disclaimer: The performance contains images and scenes that may offend the sensibility of the audience.
Recommended age 16 and over.
CAST
Musical Director Titus Engel
Stage Director Milo Rau
Set Designer Anton Lukas
Costumes Designer Cedric Mpaka
Lighting Designer Jürgen Kolb
Videos Moritz von Dungern
Dramaturgy Clara Pons
Dramaturgy Giacomo Bisordi
Choir Director Mark Biggins
Director Peter Tantsits
Director’s wife Idunnu Münch
Driver Katarina Bradić
Priest Willard White
Young Priest Simon Shibambu
Young man Serge Kakudji
Lawyer Lauren Michelle
Mother Axelle Fanyo
Librettist Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Survivor Joseph Kumbela
Grand Théâtre de Genève Chorus
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
with the appearance of Kojack Kossakamvwe
Sponsored by
*Duration is indicative and subject to change.
About
The second foray into opera by Switzerland’s best-known theatre director Milo Rau – after a streamed production of La clemenza di Tito during the pandemic – could not escape his quest for a theatrical form as a political discourse on the world today. We are in the Democratic Republic of Congo. February 2019. A tanker carrying acid collides with a bus on a road in Katanga, between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi. The result: more than twenty dead and many injured. The acid flowed into a nearby river, the same acid that is used in the processing of minerals by industry, in a mining region of Southern Congo where the road infrastructure is either in poor condition or non-existent. Milo Rau chooses an event involving a Swiss multinational in the DRC and delivers a choral elegy on the destiny of this village, of destinies torn to pieces and, beyond that, a reflection on the forces of good and evil and general interests. Between NGOs and multinationals, political powers and local populations, the entanglement of responsibility and of what is called “development” seems to be very sophisticated… Ghosts and victims, culprits and false culprits mingle with the myths and legends of this land as rich in stories as it is in minerals in this dance of death, brought to life by the libretto by a Congolese writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila, in collaboration with Milo Rau.
The Catalan composer Hèctor Parra is also known for his musically rich adaptations of literary works into opera form. One of his most recent operas is Die Wohlgesinnten, based on the novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, which premiered in Antwerp in 2019. Parra’s music is a music that steers clear of pure noise and is built on the edge of pleasure and pain. Its power hits you in the guts while its evocative and expressive capacity is written in a polished language and compact architecture. The creations of Milo Rau, essayist, director, and producer, are based on socio-historical and documentary research. He has created his own theatrical format between the narrative theatre genre and the courtroom. In 2015, Rau gathered 60 witnesses and experts in the Congolese civil war zone for his Congo Tribunal, one of his most ambitious political theatre projects.
Alongside the US tenor Peter Tantsits, who had already sung the role of Max Aue in Die Wohngesinnten by the same Parra, are singers specially cast for this creation, from the legendary Willard White to the young Congolese countertenor – he comes from Kolwezi – Serge Kakudji, known, among other things, for his show with Alain Platel Coup Fatal. Conductor Titus Engel from Zurich, a great specialist in contemporary music, who skillfully drove our Einstein on the Beach machine in 2019, will undoubtedly make this new score sparkle, perhaps also adding a few touches of Congolese rumba…
Introduction
Reportage : Un opéra pour rendre justice
Découvrez le reportage réalisé par l’équipe de l’émission Ramdam (RTS) qui a suivi Milo Rau, Hèctor Parra et Serge Kakudji au Congo lors de leur travail de repérage et de rencontres au cœur de Kabwe.
Preparatory work for Justice, November 2023
Justice at La Plage
Check out all the various events connected with the production.
45 minutes before the performance
45 minutes before the bells call you into the house, it’s time to refresh your memory and go back to the beginnings of the opera: we offer a brief introduction to remind you what the work is all about and what kind of magical, apocalyptic, critical or hyper-realistic worlds the people behind the production have in store for you. Lickety-split, there’s just enough time to grab some bubbly before you take your seats under the star-studded ceiling of a thousand and one operas!
45 minutes before each performance
Free admittance with performance tickets
Foyer of the GTG
Saturday, January 13 at 11AM
About Justice : Introduction to set design with Valeria Pacchiani
How does a set designer go about inventing a set? How do you bring a contemporary incident to life?
These mysteries will hold no more secrets for you after this workshop about Justice, which will give you the opportunity to design the prototype of your imagination with set designer Valeria Pacchiani.
Saturday, January 13, 2024 from 11AM to 1PM
From 12 years and over, accompanied by an adult
CHF 15 / CHF 10 for young people
At the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Places are limited!
Tuesday, January 16 at 6:30PM
JUSTICE – Un compositeur guide de son œuvre
Une conférence d’Hèctor Parra
Nombreuses sont les adaptations d’ouvrages littéraires vers la forme lyrique d’Hèctor Parra. Citons comme exemple Les Bienveillantes, opéra basé sur le roman homonyme de Jonathan Littell, créé à Anvers en 2019.
« Sa musique résiste à incorporer le bruit à l’état pur et se construit à la limite du plaisir et de la douleur. Sa force vous prend aux tripes tandis que sa capacité évocatrice et expressive s’écrit dans un langage poli et une architecture compacte. »
Toutes qualités musicales indispensables pour donner vie à sa nouvelle création, Justice, d’après un fait divers tragique qui a entraîné la mort d’une vingtaine de personnes au Congo et impliqué une multinationale suisse.
Occasion exceptionnelle : le compositeur viendra lui-même présenter son opéra, ce qui a peu de chance de se produire avec Verdi et Richard Strauss !!!
En collaboration avec l’Association genevoise des amis de l’opéra et du ballet. Une mise en bouche qui vous révélera tous les secrets de l’œuvre.
Mardi 16 janvier 2024
À 18h30
Au Théâtre de l’Espérance
> plan d’accès
Prix d’entrée :
Gratuit pour les membres de l’association, les Ami-e-s du Grand Théâtre et les jeunes de moins de 30 ans
Non membre : CHF 15.-
AVS et chômage : CHF 10.-
+ d’info
Wednesday, January 17 at 7:30PM
Have you ever attended a rehearsal at the GTG? The creation of an opera requires a series of rehearsals before the première: piano dress rehearsal, Italian dress rehearsal, dress rehearsal… We invite you to attend a “Stage and Orchestra”. What is it?
It’s a rehearsal in which the singers and orchestra rehearse scene by scene in the presence of the director and accompanied by the orchestra, to check the coherence between the voices, the music and the staging. This is a unique opportunity to observe the work of the artistic teams and to preview the score of this creation.
And for those who would like to learn more, a discussion with director Milo Rau will be held in the Foyers of the GTG after the rehearsal.
Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 7:30PM
Door opening at 7PM
At the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Free admission on reservation
Places are limited!
Thursday, January 18 at 6:30PM
About Justice
With the participation of young musicians from Geneva’s Haute École de Musique as well as the composer, a breakthrough into the work of Hèctor Parra, his masters and his practices, as well as a short escape into Congolese music.
Michael Jarrell :
– Lied Ohne Worte pour trio violon violoncelle et piano
Meiko Nakahira, violon
Juliette Hubert, violoncelle
Honoka Kobayashi, piano
Hector Parra :
– Cassandre-Luba pour piano solo – Hristeya Markova, piano
– Vers le blanc pour violon et piano – Susila Heath, violon ; Florie-Jeanne Riva, piano
-Bender Schulz est un groupe de musique expérimentale composé de Patrick Dunst (saxophone), Grilli Pollheimer (batterie, électronique) et Fiston Mwanza Mujila (texte et poésie), qui combine le jazz, les mots et les bruits avec des sons congolais et autrichiens. La scène devient un lieu de réinvention permanente, un espace de possibilités, d’utopies et de rêves. Des mythes, des poèmes et des sons pour renommer le monde.
Thursday, January 18 at 6:30PM
Entrance fee CHF 25.-
First drink included (except cocktails and champagne)
At the Grand Théâtre de Genève
Friday, January 26
Haven’t you ever wondered what it’s like on the other side, when the curtain falls on a performance? How does all the technical machinery work? What do the stagehands have to do to get things back into working order? Or maybe just bump into one of the stars of the show?
So let us raise the curtain on all this for you. With every production, we give our patrons an opportunity to come backstage with us, raise their eyes to the flies and take a good look at what’s behind the sets. It may be dark in the wings but there’s a whole lot going on there! And because it’s a really busy place, we can’t really do this more than once per performance run. You will need to book your visit beforehand, so don’t delay!
A member of the theatre staff who can answer all your questions and show you some of the very impressive features of our opera house takes you backstage for free.
After the January 26 performance, a member of the theatre staff who can answer all your questions and show you some of the very impressive features of our opera house takes you backstage for free.
The “En coulisse” tour lasts about 20 minutes, starts 15 minutes after the performance, is free of charge on prior reservation with our box office service by email [email protected].
Justice for Kabwe!
Join the crowdfunding campaign
On 22 January 2024, the day of the world premiere of the opera Justice at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the international crowdfunding campaign “JUSTICE FOR KABWE” begins. The funds raised will go to the victims of the terrible accident near Kolwezi, in southern Congo – the story of which is told in Justice.
2023-2024 Season
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Photo Credit
Cover © GTG / Marc Asekhame
Rehearsals © GTG / Carole Parodi
Preparatory work for Justice © Moritz von Dungern