Abstract
Cantautrice – singer-songwriter – songmaking: all these terms attempt to describe that hybrid creature between music and poetry. But is it a creature? Or is it a place? In Sophie Hunger’s musical fantasy "Rise and Fall at Hotel Hunger", we are transported there; we flourish and fall apart in a life between music and word, body and spirit, intoxication and the senses. Over the course of a single night, from sunset to dawn, Sophie Hunger moves with her many-voiced ensemble through spaces, time zones and identities in search of the new morning. In doing so, the cantautrice unites what opera separates: composition, libretto and interpretation. Her ensemble, too, merges eras and musical realms: transverse flutes, synthesizer, western guitar and celesta give voice to the divided tongues within our breast. Sophie Hunger makes her debut this evening at the Zurich Opera House – and with her the art of modern song.