!OHO! Offhandopera – Musiktheater aus dem Stegreif

Abstract

Offhandopera (!OHO!) describes a musical theatre format that relies radically on real-time improvisation and understands opera as a fleeting, processual act. It is based on a specially developed libretto that functions less as a fixed score than as an open system of structure and impulses, which is realised immediately by singers and instrumentalists without prior rehearsal. The focus is on collective authorship: music is created in the moment of its performance and unfolds in multi-stylistic sound spaces that elude any possibility of repetition. An improvisational conductor takes on a moderating, organising function, using gestural and verbal interventions to guide the dynamics, timing and tonal weightings without closing the open process. The staging remains flexible, ranging from concert settings to theatrical arrangements with lighting, projections and costumes. Beyond aesthetic practice, !OHO! sees itself as a music-theatrical research strategy that explores questions of intermediality, collective perception and emergent decision-making, while at the same time formulating impulses for a contemporary, experimental approach to opera education.