UMS'nJIP: SANCHO (Cervantes) - Electropop Opera

Following the performances of “Woyzeck” and “A Christmas Carol,” the Swiss duo UMS’nJIP is returning to the Rabbit Hole Theater!

This time, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Javier Hagen will present their electropop opera “Sancho” (Cervantes) and the song recital “Kafka: Literature Meets Composition.” UMS’nJIP’s works are best classified as instrumental theater and conceptual music theater; they play with aesthetics—ranging from experimental music to vocal performance—with virtuosity and a touch of irony, video art, and electropop—an unconventional pocket-sized format that combines an artistic high-tech lab with maximum agility. Experience an experimental, at times challenging, yet at other times pop-infused to meditative musical-literary journey in the unmistakable UMS’nJIP style.

DON QUIXOTE AS A MENTAL MOVIE. Kafka’s short story “The Truth About Sancho Panza” is one of the keys to this evening of musical theater: an ironic reinterpretation of the two main characters from Miguel de Cervantes’s famous novel *Don Quixote* (1605/1615): According to Kafka, Sancho Panza manages, with the help of chivalric romances, to distract his own inner demon—whom he names Don Quixote—and make him perform the craziest deeds, which, however, harm no one. Sancho Panza follows him calmly on his escapades and is thoroughly entertained throughout. Sancho Pansa thus becomes the guiding spirit of the story, who—in UMS’nJIP’s musical theater, accompanied throughout by a taciturn Teresa Pansa—now interacts in the living room.

MODESTY AS A VIRTUE.The fascination with Sancho also lies in his humanity—and in his evolving answers to the questions of being versus having. Although he gives in to the temptation to become a governor—and even leaves his family to do so—he later resigns in favor of a modest life and returns with a little money “earned through his diligence and without harming anyone (!)”; in doing so, he also makes a statement, that simply contrasts concepts like the unconditional pursuit of economic growth and increased prosperity with frugality: notably in favor of inner balance, personal freedom, and independence.

SANCHO
electropop opera by UMS’nJIP, 2019
based on the novel *El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha* (1605)
by Miguel de Cervantes and texts by Franz Kafka

Spanish with English, French, and German subtitles

CAST
Text: Miguel de Cervantes
Libretto: JIP, based on an idea by Javier Walpen
Music: UMS’nJIP, Shintaro Imai
Director: Wolfgang Beuschel
Sancho, Duke, Gandalin, Worker, Tailor, Merlin, Narrator: JIP
Teresa Panza: UMS