30 June 2011 17h00
IMM Studio A 2.24
Johanna Dombois on Second Worlds – the Opera and New Media
If you look from the opera to new media nowadays and from new media to the opera, you generally see pure distortion: the opera considers media art to be hysterical, in contrast media art considers the opera to be corny. The fact that both are wrong is discussed by Johanna Dombois in her talk which is itself a fusion of reflection and practical example – Dombois' work always comes down to a form of relationship therapy. All too often alleged extremes can also be found one inside the other. In this respect, the opera itself is a primary rock in media, media art theatrical to the core.
Johanna Dombois is an opera director and author and works at the intersection of music theatre/media art. From 1989 to 1995, she studied Drama, German, English and Costume History and Design in Berlin, Vienna and Uppsala. From 2001 to 2005, she was Artistic Director of the Stage for Music Visualisation at the Beethoven-House in Bonn. In 2006, Johanna Dombois earned a doctorate under Peter Wapnewski with a dissertation on Richard Wagner's dramaturgies.
Productions (selection):
L.v. Beethoven: Fidelio, 21st Century (Bonn, 2004); idem/ibid.: Presto 126/4, R. Wagner: Ring Study 01 | Rhine Gold, prelude (2009/10, Berlin/Zurich), M. Feldman: Neither (in prep. for 2011), S. Beckett: Quad I+II (in prep. for 2012).
Publications include articles for Die Deutsche Bühne, Bühnentechnische Rundschau, Positionen, Musik & Ästhetik, Lettre International, Merkur, SPEX, Die Zeit.
The main focus of her work is the engagement with graphic and visual music, installation and object theatre, dynamic architectures, digital figure animation, the historical avant-gardes and new technologies, i.e. the experimental within the repertoire and the possibilities for merging traditional and contemporary, linear and non-linear media on the opera stage.