HOLD YOUR BREATH
Opera by Éna Brennan, Hugo Canoilas and David Pountney
World Premiere
Commissioned by the Bregenzer Festspiele as part of the Opernatelier,
in cooperation with Kunsthaus Bregenz.
August 15 & 17 2024 - 8:00 p.m | Werkstattbühne Bregenz, Austria
dur. approx. 70 minutes (no intermission)
sung in English with German surtitles
In a society where the individual’s life depends on the unemotional decisions of a selected few, a young woman tries to keep the memory of her grandmother alive. Suddenly, humankind faces some kind of creature and is seized and changed by its movements. Some claim to have created this mysterious octopus-like being. How is this creature related to human beings and do they have a hold on their lives?
Over several years, the composer Éna Brennan, the director and librettist Sir David Pountney and the visual artist Hugo Canoilas worked together in the Opernatelier to create a music theatre for the Werkstattbühne. Its main character right from the beginning is one of the most fascinating – and probably most intelligent – animals on this planet, an octopus. The singers’ voices and the dancers’ movements merge with the musicians whose sounds are electronically transmitted, thus creating a music theatre that engages all senses.
As a violinist and composer Éna Brennan wanders between different worlds. In 2020, she became internationally known with her short opera Rupture as part of the 20 Shots of Opera at the Irish National Opera. The visual artist Hugo Canoilas is known for transforming galleries into walkable stages. Born in Lisbon, the multimedia artist now commutes between Vienna, New York and Portugal. Sir David Pountney returns to Bregenz where he left his mark on the Bregenzer Festspiele as artistic director from 2004 to 2014 with several productions on the Seebühne.
The Official Scott Hendricks
The Red Leader | Priest | Dollmaker | Speaker Sam Furness
The Black Leader | Dollmaker Maria Hegele
The Nurse | Dollmaker Idunnu Münch
The Granddaughter | Dollmaker | Woman Shira Patchornik
Questioners Petr Nedbal | Hellen Boyko | Romane Ruggiero
Stage Direction and Libretto Sir David Pountney
Visual Artist (Stage | Costume Design) Hugo Canoilas
Musical Director Karen Ní Bhroin
Choreography Caroline Finn
Dramaturge Olaf A. Schmitt
Members of the SYMPHONIEORCHESTER VORARLBERG
About the Opera Studio
‘What does an opera of the 21st century sound like, look like and how do we experience it? The Opera Atelier is a joint project by Bregenz Festival and the Kunsthaus Bregenz that creates a space for artists and their ideas, explorations and thoughts paving the way for an opera to premiere at the Werkstattbühne. The audience is invited to follow this process over several years. Following the premiere of To the Lighthouse in 2017 and Wind in 2021, now it is time for an explorer and a returnee to set out on a new adventure: Belgian-Irish composer Éna Brennan, the Portuguese artist Hugo Canoilas and the British stage director Sir David Pountney, formerly artistic director of the Bregenz Festival.’
– Read more
Insight Events
Press
Hold Your Breath features in a ORF segment on Austrian TV showcasing the remaining operas to premiere at the 2024 Bregenz Festival.
“This was innovative musical theatre, as far removed as possible from any kind of genius or star cult, but at the same time relaxed, authentic and completely convincing.”
“The interaction of live music - eight musicians from the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra on moving podiums and five voices under the overall direction of the Irish conductor Karen Ni Bhroin - and electronic music creates a suggestive suction effect. Stylistically, Brennan’s music is located between medieval drone sounds, subtle vocal music, baroque fanfares, strong outbursts and a dark background noise. The eagerly awaited result of the opera studio is moving, ambiguous, enigmatic and was enthusiastically received by the audience.”
“At the enthusiastically applauded premiere of the “Opera in promenade” on Thursday, one could get up close and personal with the performers. “Hold Your Breath” can be described as a collage or, better, as a walk-in installation, whose musical, textual and visual elements appear to be of equal importance ... the work targets the will to perceive, which was obviously activated in the audience, and evades classification as part of the new musical theatre.”
“Members of the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra play the chamber music composition by Éna Brennan, interwoven with electronic sounds, on four movable platforms, while eight dancing and singing artists express with moving urgency their grief at the destruction of living spaces and all beings, as well as warnings about human ignorance. The visitors to the performance themselves become part of the gripping and oppressive events.”
David Pountney recites an excerpt of Hold Your Breath, broadcast on Austrian TV channel ORF as part of the 2024 Bregenz Festival Opening Press Conference.
Photography © Bregenzer Festspiele / Anja Köhler