Song & Slam

Art song as an exhibition match: on stage, slam poets compete, rub and bump against the works of Heinrich Heine, Adelbert von Chamisso and Robert Schumann. Provocative, thoughtful, with a lot of anger and even more humor, the nationally renowned prizewinners dissect the gender images of Romanticism with their own modern texts.

They are juxtaposed with two song cycles by Robert Schumann, which tell of love and devotion. They deal with submissive wives (“Frauenliebe und -leben”) and vulnerable admirers (“Dichterliebe”)—and are sometimes highly controversial today due to the gender roles portrayed. Poetry slam and social issues meet classical music of the highest quality at SONG & SLAM. An actress leads through the evening with chauvinistic texts from the pick-up scene.

The songs are interpreted by up-and-coming musicians who are among the best in Germany. The world premiere was performed by mezzo-soprano Anna-Doris Capitelli and pianist Tae-Yang Jeong (both members of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan), baritone Andreas Burkhart and pianist and Hugo Wolf Prize winner Jonathan Ware. The Mephistophelean presenter “Luzia” was played by actress Theresa Weihmayr (Stadttheater Ingolstadt). Fee Brembeck (German-speaking U-20 champion), Yannik Sellmann (Bavarian champion) and Sandra Da Vina (NRW champion) performed as slam poets.

The Munich classical music festival HIDALGO performed SONG & SLAM for the first time on September 10, 2018. The club Bahnwärter Thiel was sold out, with visitors following the immediate staging on benches, crates and armchairs. Classical music lovers and poetry slam fans, young and old, suits with wine glasses and student hipsters with beer bottles sat next to and with each other. The evening was accompanied by newspaper and radio reports as well as a TV report recorded on site on Bavarian television.

After a revival in Munich in summer 2019, the Heidelberger Frühling had bought SONG & SLAM for March 2020, but the guest performance was canceled due to the Covid pandemic. In October 2022, the production was performed again in a revised version at the HIDALGO Festival.