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The production Schwanengesang / Swan Song is based on Franz Schubert’s song cycle of the same name. The song cycle was his last major work. The motifs of the poems are the longing for life, departures and the search for a loved one. The production combines these songs with an original text by Jana Bodnárová, which analyses the longing for life in a seriously ill person.
Both works, despite their serious themes, bring hope and joy, a sense of peace. Schwanengesang/ Swan Song is a theatrical production that tells the story of a real-life interviewee – a 35-year-old woman and mother (of an autistic child) with breast cancer – in a documentary-like way. It is not meant to be her last song, certainly not when her treatment works and the tumor disappears. It is about the desire to live. The show analyses medicine as a science, with facts outpacing increasingly rampant conspiracies; the fascinating power of chemotherapy treatments that kill parts of the healthy body too, but above all heal.
The production is a process of following a patient from his preparation to his surgery to his awakening after anaesthesia. Watching him interact with the people he puts his life in the hands of. The project is not an 18th century anatomical theatre for the public. It is an intimate conversation, trust, fear and joy of life. A promise that we can trust science and experts.
The project is a theatrical performance combining classical music and drama. It is an important contribution to the debate on cancer prevention.
Premiere: 17. / 18. 4. 2024 _ Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
9. 6. 2024 _ štátna filharmónia Košice, Košice (Festival Košická hudobná jar)