Solaris at Komische Oper Berlin

Stanis?aw Lem’s classic science-fiction novel Solaris, which reached cult status in Andrei Tarkowski’s congenial film version, is transformed into an exciting space opera in Detlev Glanert’s first inaugural performance in Berlin. Glanert, one of the most often-played contemporary composers, uses his poetic musical language to orbit the novel’s existential questions: what makes mankind human? What are the limits of his scientific understanding? To what extent is he governed by his memories and (lost) hopes? Why are we unable to get close to the stranger within and outside us?

Unsettling things are happening on a space station designed to explore the planet Solaris: the crew are visited by mysterious guests, who reveal themselves to be the manifestations of the astronauts’ suppressed feelings of guilt and shame. The planet Solaris clearly has something to do with the apparitions. Getting rid of the phantoms seems impossible. Kris Kelvin, the psychologist charged with getting to the bottom of the strange events, is also suddenly visited by his lover Harey, who took her own life years before. It becomes increasingly uncertain as to who is studying whom …

“Opera is capable of penetrating deep into the emotional realm”, which is why Detlev Glanert believes Solaris to be suitable material for an opera. Glanert’s stage works in particular reveal his ability to compose in pointed gestures, filling his musical language, which is both modern yet faithful to tradition, with equal levels of auditory sensibility and emotional depth. Thus in Solaris, the composer uses the polyphonic choir to make the planet of Solaris and its “sea of plasma” something that can be experienced with the senses – “present, but not necessarily visible”, as the stage directions put it

The Belgian-French duo of directors, Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, have been working together for over 25 years, including at such venues as the Covent Garden Royal Opera House, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Metropolitan Opera, and at the Opernhaus Zürich. Solaris will be their first production in Germany.