Ruhe (Rest) is a recital of melancholic Schubert lieder that is rudely interrupted by people who want to talk about their voluntary enlistment in the SS in 1940. A search for harmony was in those days, as it is for the singers now, the basic principle and, as in a choir with any ambition, anyone who sang false was out. They ask for understanding.
During the sixties the Dutch artists Armando and Hans Sleutelaar carried out a number of conversations with people who belonged to the SS in the Second World War. They typed out the tapes, left out the questions and the result is some monologues by people trying to explain what and how they thought and felt back then and why their lives took that turn. No bitter regrets, just people who cannot by any means rid themselves of their past.
The Collegium Vocale singers and the two actors are already in their chairs when the public comes in and takes the empty seats. The audience sits among the singers and actors. The performance begins.
Simply moving and admired from Paris to Edinburgh, Budapest, Leipzig, Singapore, Norway and Australia. On 3 and 4 November 2010 in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Other performances
22 May 2010 in Mechelen (Belgium)
24 May 2010 in The Hague (the Netherlands)
26 May 2010 in Dortmund (Germany)
3 June 2010 in Quimper (France)
Voices
“People walk out angry or burst into tears.”
“This is an open performance to which everyone can give his own interpretation. In Sydney Ruhe was performed in the context of the increasing move to the right, while in Norway the wartime past has still, on the whole, not been dealt with."
“Making wrong choices is a phenomenon of all times.”
Concept and direction: JOSSE DE PAUW
Musical director: CHRISTOPH SIEBERT
Text: TOM JANSEN, JOSSE DE PAUW
Scenography: HERMAN SORGELOOS
Images courtesy of: DAVID CLAERBOUT and MICHELINE SZWAJCER GALLERY
Acting: JOSSE DE PAUW, TOM JANSEN, DIRK ROOFTHOOFT, CARLY WIJS (2 actors per performance) / COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT
A Muziektheater Transparant production in coproduction with KunstenFESTIVALdesArts and Zeeland Nazomerfestival, in cooperation with Festival Spielart (Munich)
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