Katharina Schmitt & Michal Rataj - A Study of Aphasia
A Study of Aphasia is a music-theatre piece for mezzo-soprano, violoncello, female vocal quartet, live electronics, and one actress, exploring the human voice as a marker of identity.
In his book Children’s Speech and Aphasia (1918), Austrian linguist Emil Fröschels describes the relationship between the development of language skills, speech impediments, and psychology. Among other topics, Fröschels focuses on speech loss, or aphasia. Inspired by Fröschels’ book and a scene from Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona, in which an actress loses her voice, Schmitt and Rataj explore language, speech, and voice. For them, the question “Who speaks?” is as important as “Who cannot speak?” or “Who cannot be heard?” The dramaturgical framework of the piece is based on the confrontation between a mute and a speaking character, resulting in a broad palette of vocal expressions, including singing, Sprechgesang, whispering, speaking, and screaming.
Composition
Michal Rataj
Librettist and director
Katharina Schmitt
Dramaturgy
Viktorie Knotková
Stage design
Pavel Svoboda
Light design
Zuzana Režná
Costumes
Patricia Talacko
Sound
Matěj Šenkyřík
Photographers
Lena Luga & Martin Popelář
Cast
Katalin Károlyi, mezzosoprano
Ivana Uhlířová, actress
Andrej Gál, violoncello, percussion
Tiburtina Ensemble (Barbora Kabátková, Ivana Bilej Brouková, Anna Chadimová Havlíková, Kamila Mazalová)
Michal Rataj, electronics
Premiere
August 29th 2020, New Opera Days Ostrava