Kepler

Johannes Kepler lived and worked in Linz from 1612 to 1627. KEPLER however has no time for biographical details. The opera raises fundamental questions of the kind that Kepler worked on all his life and that he hoped science would be able to answer. Historical ruptures in the wake of the Counter Reformation shaped the world into which the astronomer and mathematician was born in 1571. Surrounded on all sides by war and religious strife, he sought to decipher the divine order hidden in the “book of Nature”, in the unshakable belief that his efforts would be crowned with success. “God has based everything on numbers”, was the motto that inspired his research. Philip Glass, one of the best known composers of our time, bases his approach to Kepler on the astromer’s conviction that “without genuine knowledge life is dead”. The opera’s libretto is by the Austrian theatre maker Martina Winkel. The director, stage designer and video artists Peter Missotten is in charge of the mise-en-scène. The production continues the long-time cooperation between Dennis Russell Davies and Philip Glass, which has led to several world and European premieres in Linz over the last years.

 

WHERE // Landestheater Linz, Tel.: 0800/218000, www.landestheater-linz.at

GUEST PERFORMANCES // New York: 18, 20 & 21 November 2009 Brooklyn Academy of Music