Atatürk

A nation invents itself - and a man becomes its face. At the end of the First World War, Mustafa Kemal, a celebrated commander in the crumbling Ottoman Empire, draws up a vision of a young modern republic based on the Western model. Against the geopolitical designs of the Allies, he proclaimed the new Turkish state in 1923 and set the framework for a new state with reforms such as secularism, women's rights, hat laws and the reform of the written word, along with a new image of humanity: "He will not bow down, the people should rise up to him." But every new beginning comes at a price. What does it cost to invent a nation? Private relationships tip over into the historical, political visions reach into the most intimate spaces. Female characters, companions, opponents and a polyphonic choir form the echo of a society in upheaval. Between waltzing bliss, dervish dancing and war reports, tradition and secularization, emancipation and repression, a panorama emerges of an era that is rewriting itself - and leaving open questions in its wake. What does progress mean? Who pays for reforms? And how much violence is there in the dream of unity? The poetically condensed libretto by playwright Olga Bach does not follow any chronology. It moves between documentary traces and fiction: the frenzy of the end, the intoxication of the beginning, the long shadows of political decisions. Director Ersan Mondtag translates this search for identity into suggestive, surreally heightened visual spaces and questions the figure of Atatürk as a myth between man and monument. Kammersänger Matthias Klink interprets the title role, while composer Bassem Akiki on the podium of the Staatsorchester interweaves sound and scene to create a multi-layered space of different musical cultures - a musical theater that does not illustrate history, but questions it from today's perspective. An evening about power and seduction, about vision and loss. And about the question of how much future lies in a dream of nationhood.

An opera in three acts
Libretto by Olga Bach

by Bassem Akiki