The making of Berlin

• Date: 04 May
• label.tijd 21:00
• Location: Theater aan Spui

The Flemish theater company Berlin created The Making of Berlin, a performance that is a mix of documentary, theater, and music. It is a portrait of Berlin during World War II, built around the extraordinary story of an elderly German man who worked as an orchestra conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic and was involved in an exceptional project that was never performed.

The Making of Berlin is a portrait of a city, built around the extraordinary story of Friedrich Mohr, a Berliner who worked as an orchestra conductor—the “roadie” of the orchestra—with the Berliner Philharmoniker during World War II.

A performance with film footage and live horn music in which the BERLIN ensemble performs the technical masterpiece 75 years after it was originally planned. With Friedrich Mohr himself, the orchestra of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, and German actor Marin Wuttke (Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards).

BERLIN helps Mohr to finally realize his unfulfilled dream. At the end of World War II, the conductor of the Philharmonic decides to perform Siegfried's Funeral March from Wagner's Götterdämmerung one last time. The piece is to be broadcast live on German state radio. Rehearsing with the entire orchestra in one location quickly proves too dangerous due to persistent bombing. The conductor therefore divides the orchestra into seven segments and has them rehearse in separate bunkers. The faltering (recording) technology throws a spanner in the works.

It is Mohr's ultimate wish to perform this technical masterpiece 75 years after the date originally planned. The Götterdämmerung will be played simultaneously from seven bunkers and can be heard in its entirety on the radio. A daring feat for which BERLIN has enlisted the help of Chantal Pattyn and radio station Klara, the orchestra of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, and German actor Martin Wuttke (known from Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds), among others.

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