Flight

With FLIGHT the Opera Bonn has for the third time (after THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO and the world premiere of MARX IN LONDON) in its program next season a work of Britain’s most successful living composer Jonathan Dove. Based on a text by April De Angelis, the airport comedy literally presents a »no exit« situation: in an unnamed airport, a gathering place for travelers stranded en route, or maybe people stuck because of bad weather, their stories unfold: small and bigger human tragedies, people fleeing from their daily routine, in the end confronting their own existence. Be it a refugee, a controller or a lover waiting for someone in vain – the chamber piece quasi comedy about people in constrained predicaments, makes for an explosive chemistry that is discharged in an anonymous nocturnal airport departure lounge.

Originally commissioned for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera, the opera without chorus, since its world premiere in September 1998 at the Glyndebourne Festival, has developed into an internationally often-performed repertoire wonder. Conceived as an ensemble piece FLIGHT combines different musical styles and mixes modern and traditional opera elements: thereby Dove demonstrates that contemporary works for musical theater are capable of attracting wider audiences.