Justice

Congo, 2019: On a village road in Katanga, between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi, a tanker loaded with sulphuric acid rams into a bus. The consequences: more than 20 dead and many injured. The acid flows into the nearby river. Sulphuric acid is used in the industrial processing of minerals. Cobalt is found in almost every smartphone battery, and nowhere is more cobalt mined than in the Congo.

 

The second opera production by the internationally award-winning director and artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen Milo Rau is based on this event. Rau created an elegiac, choral work about the village, torn fates, the forces of good and evil and public interest. The intertwining of responsibility and so-called development seems to be quite complex among NGOs, multinationals, political powers and the local populace…

 

In “Justice”, Rau utilises the theatre as a political arena where global discourse is collectively negotiated. Voices of ghosts and victims, culprits and alleged culprits mix with the myths of the region, which is not only rich in mineral resources. Librettist for “Justice” is the Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila, who lives in Graz. The music is by the Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. Shortly after its premiere at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, this stirring work will be performed by the Tonkünstler orchestra and a top-class ensemble for the first time in Austria.

 

 

Video: Making of & Trailer

 

Press reviews

 

 

TRIGGER WARNING: Death, physical and psychological violence

Recommended age: from 16 years

 

 

A production of the Grand Théâtre de Genève in co-production with Festspielhaus St. Pölten and Tangente St. Pölten - Festival für Gegenwartskultur.

 

With the support of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.