Haydn Die Schöpfung – The Creation

 

After the Bible and Milton's Paradise Lost 

 

Creative Team
Direction & Scenography – Constantine Koukias & Slavisa Drobnjakovic
Dramaturgy – Willem Bruls
Installation Artist – Mathias Oostrijk 
Technical Production Design – Boris Cribo

 

SYNOPSIS & OVERVIEW by Willem Bruls

PART 1
The story of the Creation of the Universe, the World and Mankind, as told in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. God created the world in just six days, some 5780 years ago. He was exhausted, but before he decided to take a well-deserved rest on the seventh day, he created Adam and Eve. He looked back on all this with some complacency. 

 

And there - in God’s paradisiacal Garden of Eden - is where we still should be today. But are we? And is the world really 5780 years old? For the time being, we are in the eternal darkness of primal Chaos. Archangel Gabriel, an astronaut, enters into the darkness. Below, a gloomy world slowly appears. Somebody explores the space with a torch, as the Archangels Raphael and Uriel, both pilots, appear. And as they do so suddenly overwhelming rays of light from the World Soul Globe beam into the space. 

 

There are people cleaning the space. Is it an office? What do all these deposit boxes actually mean, and what is the Stenographer in the corner doing? Is this a place where all the artefacts of the Creation and its history are registered, cataloged and stored, or predicted and prefigurated? Is this the world we perceive with our limited human minds? 
The crowds disappear. Raphael enters with a little light which seems to grow into a gloriously shining World Soul Globe. 

 

People move around, busy with their individual systems for managing the space. What kind of secrets lies behind the boxes, walls and doors? Archangel Michael enters and receives the order to prepare for the arrival of Alexander von Humboldt, the German scientist and explorer who discovered the interdependence of ecological systems and the first examples of climate change, caused by human hands. 

 

Humboldt appears in the Emergency Doors while the World Soul Globe is floating in the space. After its glowing lights are gradually extinguished, an atomic clock has been set and starts its count down. The Archangels and Humboldt leave the space. 

 

PART 2
As the Emergency Doors open again, Charles Darwin, the Father of Evolution, is visible in the distance, surrounded by lush jungle, filled with animal life. Darwin listens to Gabriel, who tells him about the many birds that God created. The variety of birds awake his first thoughts about natural selection and evolution. As God creates more animals, Darwin’s ideas evolve into a great chain of being. 

 

Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael tell us everything about God’s creatures and Darwin’s ideas. As Darwin walks back to the Emergency Doors he meets Alexander von Humboldt and both join to enter the beauty of the lush jungle. At the same time, some of the most extraordinary creatures are brought into the space on trolleys. Everyone is confused. 

 

Interval 
On the sixth Day of his Creation, God makes Man and Woman, the first human couple on earth. But things don’t seem to have gone to plan. Michael struggles with the system with the result that things don’t seem to work as they did before.

 

Instead of creating order, the deposit boxes create Chaos. Michael hides under a blanket, while Gabriel and Raphael prefer to depart the earth. 

​

PART 3
With the emergence of mankind, the space transforms. The world of deposit boxes and machines makes room for scenery suggesting domestic bliss. The lush jungle - previously glimpsed through the Emergency Doors - has completely disappeared. Dry earth surrounds the little world of Adam, Eve and their family. The parched landscape has not seen rain for a very long time. Where are we now? 

 

Adam is washing their trailer home, the children are busy, and Eve is sweeping the sandy pathway. It is Christmas morning. After completing these tasks they make preparations for a barbecue party, and everything breathes the joy and contentment of family life. When everything is ready for the Christmas lunch and the Christmas presents, Uriel finally leaves the space. 

 

Suddenly a flame appears, and the World Soul Globe starts to glow. Things catch fire. The three Archangels appear and together with the Stenographer they try to warn the little family, but they seem to be completely in denial of what is happening around them. 

 

The Archangels try everything to prevent a catastrophe but are unable to do anything about it. They too depart the earth.

 

As the happy family turns on the Christmas lights, a desperate Fireman witnesses the final cataclysm.