PRODUCTION CREDITS

Music: Pedro Alcalde / Sergio Caballero
String Trio: Raquel Castro (violin), Yuval Gotlibovich (viola), Erica Wise (violoncello); Kolja Blacher (additional violin – track 6)
Additional Music: Richie Hawtin, Alva Noto, Mika Vainio
Choreographer: Nacho Duato
Set: Numen + Ivana Jonke
Costumes: Beate Bormann
Lighting: Brad Fields

Premiered by the Staatsballett Berlin
Venue: Komische Oper – Berlin
Date: 21st April 2017

BACKGROUND
Erde is a ballet created around the idea of the Anthropocene: the geological epoch characterized by the imprint of the human being on Planet Earth.

TITLE
“Erde” means “Earth” in German.

MUSIC
The music of Erde consists of three main registers. The first is a group of pieces written for string trio, the second, landscapes of sounds and the third, three pieces of electronic music composed by Richie Hawtin, Alva Noto and Mika Vainio.
The pieces for string trio were our starting point. One of them, built on a succession of chords, acts as a litany throughout the ballet.
For the soundscapes, we use woodwind instruments forming chords and variable textures. Geological, biological or human-made sounds are added occasionally to them. These sound landscapes represent the fundamental pillars of the ballet’s structure: beginning, middle and end.
The piece Circles by Richie Hawtin is presented here in the version he created with us, premiered by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra OBC in the framework of the 2005 Sonar Festival.

SOUND PALETTE
A
String Trio
B
1- Woodwind orchestra: 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets and 3 bassoons
2- Geological sounds: water, ice, stones
3- Biological sounds: insects, animal footsteps
4- Human sounds: violin and double bass ponticello, isolated industrial sounds, piano, a bell of Burma, Saint Peter’s Bell from Cologne Cathedral, Germany
C
Electronic

MEDIUM
CD

DURATION
47′

PERFORMANCES
21-04-2017 / 07-04-2018 Komische Oper Berlin Germany
Total performances 24