“Superheldennormalos” is the first community opera to be staged at the Kinderoper Köln. Around 100 children and young people between the ages of ten and eighteen, from, among other things, the ENBE youth centre, Holweide comprehensive school, Helios comprehensive school and Katharina-Henoth comprehensive school, developed the production in various workshops under professional artistic and educational guidance. Starting with the development of the theme and the writing of the libretto to the composition of the music and the creation of the stage and costume design, the “baton” was passed from one workshop group to the next. Finally, children and young people from the Dellbrücker Mauspfad comprehensive school, the Willy Brandt comprehensive school and the Kölner Domchor will also perform on stage alongside the singers of Oper Köln’s International Opera Studio and, accompanied by the Gürzenich Orchestra, will work on the opera with a professional production team. The result is “Superheldennormalos” – an opera about the search for identity, about the fears, wishes and dreams of children and young people, which adults are also likely to relate to. Tamina is out of her depth. At home, she has to babysit her siblings, maintain calm and keep on top of the ever-growing chaos. Though all she wants to do is write, retreat into her own four walls and give free rein to her creativity ... Max struggles every week at football training, where he is regularly picked on by the coach and his team-mates. Nevertheless, Max has a dream: he wants to become a designer and hold his own fashion show. Sammy longs to just be a child again, to feel safe, to dream. She is being drawn deeper and deeper into the pit of depression. Yet all she wants is for everything to be the way it used to be. Wisi spends most of her day looking after other people. And there’s so much to do. There’s the grandma she has to help across the road, the dog that has run away. And then there are Tamina, Max and Sammy, to whom she would like to be more of a friend. Because Wisi has a special gift: she can read people’s feelings. However, at the superhero workshop she learns an important lesson about herself. To direct this special project, which is produced in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre Cologne and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln, we have been able to recruit Manuel Moser, who has been head of the department of theatre for young audiences at COMEDIA since 2019. The general musical direction is in the hands of Rainer Mühlbach, director of the International Opera Studio since 2012/13 and musical director of the Kinderoper Köln. A production of the Kinderoper Köln in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln.

Margaret Bartelmeß

Events

Past events

Apr 25 - May 4, 2025

Superhero Normalos · Oper Köln

About

Margaret Bartelmeß hasn't added a bio