Opera in five acts based on the novel by José Saramago (2010/11)
Libretto by Kerstin Maria Pöhler
Commissioned by Zurich Opera House, with funds from Kunststiftung NRW
Occupation:
Maid (coloratura soprano)
Young Woman (Lyric Soprano)
The Ophthalmologist's Wife (Youth Dramatic Soprano)
Wife of the 1st Blind Man (mezzo-soprano)
Little Boy (boy soprano)
Pharmacy Assistant (lyric tenor)
Car Thief (tenor)
Taxi Driver (baritone)
Ophthalmologist (baritone)
Policeman (hero baritone)
Old Man (bass-baritone)
1st Blind Man (bass)
Blind People (choir)
Orchestra:
2(2nd also Picc) 2(2nd also Eh) 2(1st also Cl in Eb, 2nd also Bcl) 2(2nd also Cbs) - 0 2 2 1 - Timp, Perc(2), Pno( also Cel+Synth), Str
Duration: approx. 120 min
Premiere: November 12, 2011, Zurich Opera House, Main Stage
Conductor: Zsolt Hamar
Director: Stephan Müller
Set design: Michael Simon
Costume design: Carla Caminati
Lighting design: Elfried Roller, Michael Simon
Video design: Chris Ziegler
Choreography: Ramses Sigl
An epidemic strikes a city, leaving the residents blind. The symptoms of blindness are inexplicable: although there is no organic damage to the eyes, people no longer recognize their surroundings. However, they do not experience their blindness as darkness, as black night, but as a dazzling white evil. More and more people are losing their eyesight. Chaos erupts. Anarchy endangers orderly coexistence.
The state intervenes, the blind are interned in an empty insane asylum, soldiers cordon off the area. The internees live in inhumane conditions, terrorized by hunger and violence. In this hermetically sealed world, the laws of a merciless struggle for survival prevail. A group of blind people, the Wicked, establish a system of prostitution and exploitation in the camp. However, among the blind there is one sighted woman, the ophthalmologist's wife, who only pretends to be ill in order to be able to stay with her husband. She and her husband become beacons of hope for the others. When the situation becomes unbearable, she commits tyrannicide: she murders the leader of the wicked. The asylum goes up in flames. But the survivors also find apocalyptic conditions outside: civilization has collapsed. They search in vain for their past lives, their families and their homes. Everything is destroyed. New constellations are found: an old man finds the love of a young woman, an orphan boy finds a new home with them. When they want to leave the city that has become uninhabitable, their blindness falls off them as suddenly as it came. People can see again, but are they also able to see?
"Why are we blind? I don't know, maybe one day we'll find out why. Shall I tell you what I think? Yes. I don't think we're blind. I think we're blind, blind people, who see. Blind people who, while seeing, do not see."