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When one thinks of the musical – or, specifically, the operatic – landscape of Vienna, we think of lavish productions housed in the imposing Wiener Staatsoper, all very much confined within the centuries-wide shadow of the Austrian capital’s rich cultural heritage. So, when I was presented with Klangforum Wien’s Amopera – subtitled a dystopian ballad – I experienced an experimental and subversive insight into what opera can be in today's world.

A self-professed ‘meta-opera’, Amopera is, in short, a multi-media Gesamtkunstwerk taken to a whole new level with interpretive dance and art projections on top of the musical offerings. Its title refers to the core propellant of the work, amo – i.e., love – and its many, many facets. Based on the book Liebesverrat (Betrayed Love) by Swiss philologist Peter von Matt, the opera dissects whether love exists as a social construct, eternally moulded by the ebb and flow of society, or as a fundamental element of humanity. It achieves this by distilling love down to various base emotions, such as fear, anger, and lust, across 16 musical numbers. These are all taken from various operatic and vocal works written in the 20th and 21st centuries, ranging from Berg and Berio to Maxwell Davies and Britten.

The production features just a baritone and a soprano, a 23-strong orchestra, and three performers/dancers. But movement was not just reserved for the latter. Every member of the company was versatile, and, in this production, musicians were not hidden away in an orchestral pit but instead became part of the spectacle – moving across the stage, sometimes standing motionless like sculptures in a surreal gallery, only to erupt into sound or exaggerated gesture. This dynamic blurring of the roles between instrumentalist and performer is a testament to the vision of director Jan Lauwers and choreographer Grace Tjang, who drew on the multidisciplinary expertise of Needcompany.

Visually, there is always a lot going on. Grace Tjang’s light installation, Malam/Night, envelops the stage in a shadow-filled dreamscape, where dancers move like figures in a half-remembered nightmare or dream – sometimes both. Lighting by Koen De Saeger casts the performers in stark relief, while the projections weave and morph, turning the stage into a canvas of light and darkness.

For me, the music was by far the most impressive element of the evening. Not only was it impeccably performed – a great feat, given the complexity and unconventional nature of the works. With the likes of Berg’s Lulu and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia emerging as the lighter – and, dare I say, more commercial – of the set, I found many of the otherwise less accessible works thrived in this new environment. Freeing them of their respective contexts, Amopera has breathed a thrilling momentum into works that are often discussed in academic circles but seldom performed. And it is certainly not a ‘best of’ 20th-century avant-garde operatic and vocal music but a carefully curated collage, each piece complementing, but also countering and building upon, what we’ve heard up until that point.

At the heart of this are soprano Sarah Maria Sun and baritone Holger Falk, who, throughout the evening, morph into a multitude of characters, personalities, and distorted caricatures – both physically and vocally. Maria Sun’s piercing and direct tone brought a welcome clarity to works like ‘Ach, ich fühl’s’ from Lang’s I Hate Mozart and Rebecca Saunders’s O Yes and I, which was performed (both musically and physically) with a bass flute – a sumptuous instrument that I didn’t realise could mimic the tone of the human voice so effectively; they entwined as one.

Her rendition of ‘She Sleeps Like a Rose’ from The Rape of Lucretia, which closes the evening, was profoundly poignant – unlike any performance I’ve heard before. It allowed the weight of all the anger, sadness, and madness of everything prior to dissipate – a very effective end.

Falk’s impressive range – from a shrill, almost childlike falsetto to an alert and arresting baritone – is on full display in both songs from Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King. While it is certainly a team effort, the success of this production lies in how Maria Sun and Falk have enigmatically embraced the material. They are our conduit into this world, and it would be very easy to feel alienated if they didn’t possess the stage presence to sell it.

This is not an opera for the faint of heart or for those seeking a traditional narrative. One should enter the concert hall and take their seat with an open mind and should never fear they ‘don’t understand’. All forms art are a dialogue with the audience, you have to meet in the middle, art should never try to control or assume otherwise it will fail. And Amopera meets us in the middle, it certainly throws a lot at us – the stage is often teaming with life. But much like a renaissance painting, you must allow your eyes to wander and discover it for yourself even, if at first, it feels challenging.

Amopera appearing in the musical capital of Europe (if not the world) is a promising sign that this form of theatre is being embraced by traditionalists, and I can only hope it continues this trajectory. There would certainly be a place in an opera or music Festival here in the UK – particularly as it features many works by British composers and much of it is in English. We can only wait and see where this meta-opera will go.

For more information, visit en.klangforum.at/project/amopera-eine-dystopische-ballade

List of Works Featured in Amopera:

1. Salvatore Sciarrino (1947– )
   Luci mie traditrici (1996–98) - 'A respirar ritorno'

2. Luciano Berio (1925–2003)
   Recital I (for Cathy) (1972)

3. Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)
   Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) - No. 5 'The Phantom Queen'

4. Luciano Berio (1925–2003)
   Recital I (for Cathy) (1972)

5. Sir Harrison Birtwistle (1934–2022)
   Punch & Judy (1968) - 'Love Duet' (arranged by Salvatore Sciarrino, 2022)

6. Beat Furrer (1954– )
   La Bianca Notte (2013–15) - Scene 8 (arranged by Andreas Lindenbaum, 2022)

7. Sara Glojnaric (1991– )
   Artefacts #2 (2019)

8. Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001)
   Kassandra (1987)

9. Michael Wertmüller (1966– )
   Diodati. Unendlich (2018) - 'Blow my blues away' (arranged by Michael Wertmüller, 2022)

10. Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942)
    Der Zwerg (1922) - 'Sag’ daß es nicht wahr ist'

11. Alban Berg (1885–1935)
    Lulu (arranged by Eberhard Kloke, 2008)

12. Rebecca Saunders (1967– )
    O Yes & I (2017–18)

13. Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)
    Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) - No. 3 'The Lady-in-waiting'

14. Salvatore Sciarrino (1947– )
    Luci mie traditrici (1996–98) - (reprise/variation)

15. Bernhard Lang (1957– )
    I Hate Mozart (2005) - 'Ach, ich fühl’s' (arranged by Bernhard Lang, 2022)

16. Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
    The Rape of Lucretia (1946) - 'She sleeps like a rose