Catching Fire – Haendel on the Road is envisioned as a series of intercultural education projects for young people. It is based on two main aspects: the disclosure of the emotional energy in the individual via the active participation in musical and theatrical processes on the one hand, on the other the exploration of unusual perspectives on George Frederic Haendel (Georg Friedrich Händel) and the emotional impact of his music.
The goal is to build bridges between the reality of everyday life of young people and the world of opera. The focus on the emotional impact of the music and the stories allows us not only to get in touch with this form of art itself, but also to open up to the individual emotional perception of our own reality. Furthermore the joined work of young people and grown-up’s, students and professionals from all over the world, enhances the intercultural dialogue.
Opera and emotional power
It is important to us that the students will work together with professionals and can experiment in the different fields, which together form an opera. But they shall not only get to know the music thoroughly, but also work on the recognition of emotions and find out which potential creativity is based in them.
The operas of Haendel are the basis for our work. Nevertheless they are to be seen as a framework, a loose reference. Small modules with two to three arias shall be created, every single one with one or two displayed emotions (affects) as its focus. They shall be seen as individual mini-dramas, connected by the context of the story of the respective opera. These modules shall be created, formed and performed by students working together with professional musicians and several workshop teachers from the domains of direction, stage design, music and arts education.
Haendel in Serbia
The series of different projects exploring the emotional power of the music of Haendel has started in summer 2014 in the International Sumercamp Sombor, which has taken place at the Red Cross camp in Bački Monoštor, Serbia. Furthermore it is one of our visions to circulate Serbia and its neighbouring countries with an ‘opera truck’, whereby young people and professionals, including a full-scale orchestra, are working together onstage and backstage, creating and performing a new and individual Haendel-show in every place.
CATCHING FIRE 