Abstract
What to do when you’re bored? Why, follow a white rabbit, passing by on a sunny afternoon, pocket watch in his paw, as he mumbles «Oh dear! I shall be too late!», of course! At any rate, Alice doesn’t doubt for a second what she should do: She tumbles down a hole and finds herself in a world where the rules she’s always known seem to be turned upside down. In this world, there aren’t only little bottles bearing the inscription «Drink me!» that shrink Alice to the size of a mosquito. There are also irresistibly delicious cakes that make her grow to immense proportions. There’s a strange duchess who employs a cook in a kitchen that’s scattered with pepper, making everyone sneeze. And the duchess is busy rocking a baby to sleep...but on closer inspection the baby reveals itself to be a little piglet. And there’s a mad hatter who celebrates unbirthdays with a March hare and a dormouse 364 days a year. A grinning cheshire cat appears and disappears as she pleases, and a caterpillar smoking a water pipe completely confuses Alice with her questions: «Who are you?» Maybe it’s all just a dream? Or does Alice only exist because the snoring King of Hearts dreamt her up?
Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic has fascinated generations of theater- and filmmakers, spurring them to the wildest of interpretations. Among their number is Italian composer Pierangelo Valtinoni, who also wrote Zauberer von Oz for the Opernhaus Zürich. He is fascinated by this nonsense tale and is writing a new family opera for us. It will be directed for the stage by Nadja Loschky, who showed her talent for music theater for children with the recent production of Schatzinsel.