The Queen who lost her Music
music theatre for 1 actress, 1 narrator, 1 solo violine and an acting symphony orchestra
The story
A queen has spent all her money on a large orchestra and her favourite violinist Joaquino. She doesn't care wether the holes in the roof of the palace get bigger and bigger and there is wood for the fire. But her bookkeepers signal the alarm and present themselves as a group to the queen to persuade her to start saving money. But the people get terribly bored without music and then Joaquino has a bright idea: everyone must learn an instrument.
The work
As regards casting, this work is an orchestral first: not only are actors and singers on stage but also the musicians. The wind players appear as the queen's ministers who, before they are allowed to play an instrument, must express themselves verbally. In essence the sounds they make are the sounds of counting money. For this, "texts" are developed similar to those in the number poems of Kurt Schwitters.
In the story the string players are the "artists" who are exiled by the ministers. They form the "basic orchestra" of the piece and at the end the wind players join in after the queen has ordered them to learn an instrument.
Between the two groups is the queen with her trusted violinist. These two form a kind of miniature ensemble that sometimes plays with the one group and sometimes with the other. In the end they unite the two groups.
The queen's role demands much more than just acting ability: she makes music with the violinist (with her bodily ability to create sound), she dances, accompanied by the violinist.
Musically, trying out sounds is in the forefront. It rains into the queen's palace because she gives all her money to the artists: the sound of the raindrops is the trigger for a string composition. At another point, counting coins becomes the rhythmic basis for a further piece of music. In addition to natural sounds, the human voice is of course a focal point of the composition: the voice as speech, song, source of sound.
In addition, the audience plays the role of the people, who support the artists and the queen, especially in the second part of the story (e.g. grumbling choir, rhythmic applause and rejection verses etc.)
By involving the audience the classic division of space into stage - audience is automatically negated. The musicians also make music and act in the audience area.
