Victory over the Sun
. . Music Theatre for four voices, cello and computer






:.    Sun (you kept giving birth to passions) - vocal quartet
..    We have shot the past - solo cello
::    The Sun is hidden (darkness has begun) - solo cello
.:    Solar Set - vocal quartet

length : 45 min

The Stedelijk is very proud to present the new commissioned performance Victory Over the Sun by director Sjaron Minailo. Victory over the Sun is a contemporary operatic response to the legendary opera Victory over the Sun (1913) by Russian artists Aleksei Kruchenykh, Mikhail Matiushin, and Kazimir Malevich. True to the modernist spirit of its time, Victory over the Sun was a musical and theatrical revolt against the Sun as a symbol for tradition, convention, and the overbearing weight of the past.

Exactly hundred years after the original performance of Victory over the Sun, the Stedelijk presents a new performance work in which the original piece and the values presented in it are reassessed. After one hundred years of fighting the Sun, of attacking tradition and revolting against convention, have we prevailed or is there a new Sun rising?

The performance will start at the main entrance hall of the Stedelijk, with small and improvised rituals and interventions enacted by amateur performers from various backgrounds and disciplines, including the financial sector, the arts, and education. They perform their relationships to the Sun as a symbol of tradition. After 30 minutes, the performance will continue in the Auditorium, where a classic Romantic Hero carries the Sun on his shoulders and protects tradition with his own life. He is kept in captivity by a group of wardens ? the antagonists of the work. Through a series of rituals aimed at destroying the Sun, they wish to abolish tradition. Will they succeed and usher in a new era, or will tradition once again prevail over revolution?

creator and director : Sjaron Minailo
composer : Henry Vega
performers : Elena Vink, Sophie Maczewski, Anat Spiegel, Mira Helmer, Stefanie Janssen, Annelinde Bruijs, and Jacqueline Hamelink, Denio Dario das Dores a.o.