Longing and simultaneously fear have linked mankind to the sea since its beginnings. It was the place of the unknown and unexplored, where never-before-seen monsters were suspected in the depths of the sea, where the journey out into the water desert was an adventure with an uncertain outcome. At the same time, the sea stands for the experience of the infinite and the sublime, for the departure of man into previously unknown worlds. And at the same time, the depths of the sea are ciphers for the world of the subconscious, for the abysses and shadows of the human psyche.
The Mariana Trench serves as point of departure and source of inspiration for their three new musical-theatre works in progress. It's the deepest point on earth, an inaccessible “terra incognita”. The Trench is the ideal site for deep-sea diving vessels, a cipher for the sheer scale of the high seas and a habitat for whales. It stretches for almost 2,500 kilometres and is up to 11,000 metres deep. At its deepest point the water pressure exceeds 1,000 bar (water pressure at a depth of 10 metres – and air pressure at sea level - is approx. one bar). Only three men have ventured into the Mariana Trench, and the ocean depths remain an all-but-unexplored realm – even if mankind has left traces of its passing even here in the shape of toxic waste.
(Text source: Deutsche Oper - Berlin)