Dates:
30.04.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
01.05.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Austrian Premiere
 

Director:
Milo Rau

Set design:
Anton Lukas

Costumes:
Cedric Mpaka

Light design:
Jürgen Kolb

Soloists:
Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya, Lauren Michelle (soprano)
Katarina Bradić, Idunnu Münch (mezzo soprano)
Serge Kakudji (countertenor),
Peter Tantsits (tenor)
Simon Shibambu, Willard White (bass-baritone)

Music:
Tonkunstler Orchestra

Musical director:
Titus Engel

Programme:
Hèctor Parra: JUSTICE, opera in five acts
for solos, mixed choir, and large orchestra,
libretto by Milo Rau and Fiston Mwanza Mujila

Milo Rau, Hèctor Parra, Tonkunstler Orchestra

Austrian Premiere

Congo, 2019: A tanker truck loaded with sulphuric acid rams into a bus on a village road. The roads in the region are in a miserable state; meanwhile, highly toxic acids are being transported on a daily basis for the mining industry. Milo Rau chose this event, which involves a Swiss corporation, and turned it into a choral and elegiac work about the fate of a village. In JUSTICE, the award-winning director and designated artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen stages theatre as a political forum in which global discourses are negotiated as a collective. Voices of ghosts and victims, perpetrators and alleged perpetrators mingle with the myths of a region that is not only rich in mineral resources. Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila, who lives in Graz, joined in as co-librettist, and the music was written by the Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. The Tonkunstler Orchestra and a distinguished ensemble complement the line-up of this multilayered work, which can be experienced in Austria for the first time. Read more about this project here.


A production by Grand Théâtre de Genève in co-production with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten and Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture.

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Dates:
30.04.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
01.05.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Director:
Milo Rau

Set design:
Anton Lukas

Costumes:
Cedric Mpaka

Light design:
Jürgen Kolb

Soloists:
Cyrielle Ndjiki Nya, Lauren Michelle (soprano)
Katarina Bradić, Idunnu Münch (mezzo soprano)
Serge Kakudji (countertenor),
Peter Tantsits (tenor)
Simon Shibambu, Willard White (bass-baritone)

Music:
Tonkunstler Orchestra

Musical director:
Titus Engel

Programme:
Hèctor Parra: JUSTICE, opera in five acts
for solos, mixed choir, and large orchestra,
libretto by Milo Rau and Fiston Mwanza Mujila

Milo Rau, Hèctor Parra, Tonkunstler Orchestra

Austrian Premiere

Congo, 2019: A tanker truck loaded with sulphuric acid rams into a bus on a village road. The roads in the region are in a miserable state; meanwhile, highly toxic acids are being transported on a daily basis for the mining industry. Milo Rau chose this event, which involves a Swiss corporation, and turned it into a choral and elegiac work about the fate of a village. In JUSTICE, the award-winning director and designated artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen stages theatre as a political forum in which global discourses are negotiated as a collective. Voices of ghosts and victims, perpetrators and alleged perpetrators mingle with the myths of a region that is not only rich in mineral resources. Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila, who lives in Graz, joined in as co-librettist, and the music was written by the Catalan composer Hèctor Parra. The Tonkunstler Orchestra and a distinguished ensemble complement the line-up of this multilayered work, which can be experienced in Austria for the first time. Read more about this project here.


A production by Grand Théâtre de Genève in co-production with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten and Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture.

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Date:
1.5.2024 / 12:00 p.m.

Performers:
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Birgit Minichmayr (reading)

Programme:
Olivier Messiaen, Catalogue d’oiseaux
Texts about the world of birds

Catalogue Of Birds
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Birgit Minichmayr

Birds, but above all the blackbird, which can improvise over eleven or twelve verses, were his greatest source of inspiration, replied Olivier Messiaen when asked which musicians had influenced him the most. In his 13-part cycle Catalogue d’oiseaux (in English, Catalogue of Birds), written between 1956 and 1958, the French composer delves deep into the world of birdsong. While drawing inspiration from his love for the sounds, colours, shapes, and rhythms of nature, he further enriched his expertise through intensive exchanges with the ornithologist Jacques Delamain. How many of the 77 birds that Messiaen transcribed in different regions of France and responded to in his compositions can still be heard today, in times of species extinction? Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and actress Birgit Minichmayr place the work in a new context with selected texts about the world of birds. The musical reading contributes to the first thematic focus of the Tangente festival dedicated to ecology in spring 2024 . Messiaen’s work will be performed in several parts, first in the Festspielhaus St. Pölten and then followed by other locations throughout the city.
 

Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture in cooperation with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.

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Date:
3.5.2024 / 7:00 pm

Line-up:
The Notwist and other artists

The complete line-up will be announced
towards the end of 2023.

Alien Disko
The Notwist

“Bring in the savage, bring in the loud, and fill our house with all the holy astronauts.” These programmatic lines come from the song “Gravity” by The Notwist. Founded 35 years ago by brothers Markus and Micha Acher in Weilheim, Upper Bavaria, as a school band, the formation is known around the world for its melancholic yet experimental indie rock. The group will now visit St. Pölten with a programme developed exclusively for Tangente and the Festspielhaus. Guided by their “superb” taste in music, The Notwist invite a selection of artists from all over the world for their festival titled “Alien Disko”. On the main stage as well as other locations of the theatre, a parallel universe unfolds of never heard sounds, uncharted constellations, and radical experiments. Following four successful editions at the Munich Kammerspiele, “Alien Disko” makes its first stop in Austria. It goes without saying that a performance by The Notwist is a must!
 

Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture in cooperation with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.

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Termine:
4.5.2024 / 11:00 a.m.
(subject to change)

8 more performances

Austrian Premiere

Concept and Curation: 
Caroline Barneaud
Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)

With pieces by: 
El Conde de Torrefiel (ES)
Marco D’Agostin und Chiara Bersani (IT)
Sofia Dias und Vítor Roriz (PT)
Begüm Erciyas und Daniel Kötter (TR/BG/DE)
Ari Benjamin Meyers (DE)
Émilie Rousset (FR)

Shared Landscapes
seven pieces between fields and forests

Austrian Premiere

How can we approach the landscape without distancing ourselves at the same time? What if art did not imitate nature but allowed us to experience it from a different perspective? The audience is invited to the periphery of St. Pölten to spend a whole day amongst trees, meadows, human and non-human inhabitants. Under the open sky evolves a new community at the transition between city and countryside. We will embark on a walk together and see artistic interventions, performances, audio tours, music scores, choreographies, and media art. Theatre enters into a dialogue with nature – and what is left of it. In the process, will we discover a new kind of connection to nature and our surroundings?

A production by Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne (CH) and Rimini Apparat (DE) in coproduction with Festival d’Avignon (FR), Berliner Festspiele (DE), Tangente St. Pölten  – Festival for Contemporary Culture (AT), Culturgest (PT), Zona K / Piccolo Teatro di Milano (IT), Bunker / Mladi Levi festival (SI), and Temporada Alta (ES).

Co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the Creative Europe programme.

Date:
9.5.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Austrian Premiere

Concept:
Crystal Pite (Kidd Pivot) and Jonathon Young
(Electric Company Theatre)

Choreography and director:
Crystal Pite

Dance:
Kidd Pivot

Crystal Pite / Kidd Pivot & Jonathon Young / Electric Company Theatre
New Work

Austrian Premiere

“Gripping,” “irresistible,” “overwhelmingly emotional”: When Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young presented their first dance theatre piece together in 2015, not only the critics raved with praise. Numerous prestigious awards were showered upon this newly formed duo whose empathic approach proficiently staged an unspeakable tragedy with the necessary nuances: the death of one’s own child. Crystal Pite, who once danced in William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt and has been a choreographer for renowned companies for over 30 years, delights her audiences with bold works about highly sensitive topics. The Canadian found an ideal partner in theatre-maker Jonathon Young to intelligently merge dance and theatre. Their third collaboration – whose Austrian premiere can be experienced at the Festspielhaus – explores the human need for belonging. With an eight-member ensemble, they envision a gathering place, both a community hall and mythical realm, which accommodates various emotions: from the joys and dangers of devoted kindred spirits to the sorrow of exile.
 

Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture in cooperation with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.

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Dates:
11.5.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
17.5.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Austrian Premiere

Dramaturgy:
Wunderbaum – Walter Bart, Wine Dierickx,
Matijs Jansen, Maartje Remmers,
Marleen Scholten

With an international ensemble
of singers, musicians, and actors.

Alfa Romeo and the electric Giulietta
Wunderbaum

Austrian Premiere

In their Austrian-Italian-Dutch music theatre, the internationally renowned collective Wunderbaum drafts a ground-breaking narrative about the vision of a beautiful new world, which these days is increasingly bereft of beauty and novelty. The Italian industrialist family Romeo was immersed in prestige, fame, and glamour in the 50s of the last century. Their elegant luxury automobiles embodied a promise of freedom and prosperity. But what happens when, decades later, the car has suddenly become a harbinger of menaces to the climate and the environment? Must we abstain from status symbols in the 21st century? Or will the e-car save our world?

A coproduction by Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture, Landestheater Niederösterreich and Wunderbaum.

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Dates:
11.5.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
17.5.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

 

Dramaturgy:
Wunderbaum – Walter Bart, Wine Dierickx,
Matijs Jansen, Maartje Remmers,
Marleen Scholten

With an international ensemble
of singers, musicians, and actors.

Alfa Romeo and the electric Giulietta
Wunderbaum

In their Austrian-Italian-Dutch music theatre, the internationally renowned collective Wunderbaum drafts a ground-breaking narrative about the vision of a beautiful new world, which these days is increasingly bereft of beauty and novelty. The Italian industrialist family Romeo was immersed in prestige, fame, and glamour in the 50s of the last century. Their elegant luxury automobiles embodied a promise of freedom and prosperity. But what happens when, decades later, the car has suddenly become a harbinger of menaces to the climate and the environment? Must we abstain from status symbols in the 21st century? Or will the e-car save our world?

A coproduction by Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture, Landestheater Niederösterreich, and Wunderbaum.

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Dates:
5.6.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
6.6.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Austrian Premiere

Concept and director:
Marta Górnicka

Libretto:
Marta Górnicka & Ensemble

Music:
Cezary Duchnowski, Marta Górnicka

Set design:
Robert Rumas

Choreography:
Evelin Facchini

Mothers
A Song For Wartime
Marta Górnicka

Austrian Premiere

The internationally acclaimed director Marta Górnicka gives the stage to 25 Ukrainian, Polish, Belarusian mothers and their children. They are refugees from Mariupol, Kiev, Bucha. There are the ones who fled the war, others fled persecution. They all have their place in the Chorus of Mothers, which follows a form of opera that harks back to ritual women’s choruses from the 7th century BC. The war rituals of violent assaults, rape, and murder of women and the executions of civilians never change. They happened in the Balkans, Chechnya, Syria, Georgia – and today in Ukraine. Whoever wins, baby, the winner is always war!

A production of The Chorus of Women Foundation Teatr Dramatyczny, Warsaw (PL), Maxim Gorki Theater (DE), Festival d‘Avignon (FR), Le Maillon, Strasbourg (FR), Spring Festival Utrecht (NL), Euro-Scene, Leipzig (DE), Landestheater Niederösterreich und Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture (AT).

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Dates:
5.6.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
6.6.2024 / 7:30 p.m.
 

Concept and director:
Marta Górnicka

Libretto:
Marta Górnicka & Ensemble

Music:
Cezary Duchnowski, Marta Górnicka

Set design:
Robert Rumas

Choreography:
Evelin Facchini

Mothers
A Song For Wartime
Marta Górnicka

The internationally acclaimed director Marta Górnicka gives the stage to 25 Ukrainian, Polish, Belarusian mothers and their children. They are refugees from Mariupol, Kiev, Bucha. There are the ones who fled the war, others fled persecution. They all have their place in the Chorus of Mothers, which follows a form of opera that harks back to ritual women’s choruses from the 7th century BC. The war rituals of violent assaults, rape, and murder of women and the executions of civilians never change. They happened in the Balkans, Chechnya, Syria, Georgia – and today in Ukraine. Whoever wins, baby, the winner is always war!

A production of The Chorus of Women Foundation Teatr Dramatyczny, Warsaw (PL), Maxim Gorki Theater (DE), Festival d‘Avignon (FR), Le Maillon, Strasbourg (FR), Spring Festival Utrecht (NL), Euro-Scene, Leipzig (DE), Landestheater Niederösterreich und Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture (AT).

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Date:
22.6.2024 / 7:30 p.m.

Austrian Premiere

Concept:
Jeremy Nedd

Stage design:
Laura Knüsel

Sound design:
Fabrizio Di Salvo, Rej Deproc

Choreography and performance:
Thomas Motsapi, Bonakele Masethi,
Kgotsofalang Moshe, Jeremy Nedd

blue nile to the galaxy around olodumare
Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula

Austrian Premiere

Spiritual and cosmic jazz, virtuoso footwork from the townships, and Afrofuturism as a gesture of liberation: under the title BLUE NILE TO THE GALAXY AROUND OLODUMARE, Jeremy Nedd and the group Impilo Mapantsula trace the labyrinthine experiences of African diaspora. The dancer and choreographer, who was raised in Brooklyn and now lives in Switzerland, builds a bridge from jazz as an expression of the Afro-American civil rights movement to the South African subculture Pantsula, which evolved from the resistance against apartheid policies. The avowed science fiction fan found inspiration both in astronomy as well as the sonic cosmos of jazz greats Alice Coltrane and Bheki Mseleku, whose music often veers into spiritual spheres. Drawing from a replete dance language inspired by the highly rhythmic Pantsula vocabulary and principles of improvisation, Jeremy Nedd and Impilo Mapantsula present a visionary evening of dance that seizes the energy of moving forward while looking back to the past.

Tangente St. Pölten – Festival for Contemporary Culture in cooperation with the Festspielhaus St. Pölten.

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Date:
23.6.2023 / 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Location:
Kulturheim Nord
Matthias-Corvinus-Straße 5
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

We do it differently - ideas for the future!
Presentation of the Tangente school projects with party

On 23.6.2023, the Tangente Stadtprojekte celebrate the completion of the first school projects in and around the Kulturheim Nord. Under the title "We do it Differently - Ideas for the Future!" students of the participating schools -Mittelschule Wagram, Otto Glöckel Volksschule, Bundesschulzentrum Eybnerstraße and Zentrum für Inklusiv- und Sonderpädagogik ASO St. Pölten-Nord - will present their thoughts and ideas in the form of artistic contributions, exhibitions and performances, which they have developed together with the artists Luna Al-Mousli, Katya Dimova, Veza Fernandez, Luca Manuel Kieser, Romy Kolb, Julia Müllner, Felix Röper, Camilla Schielin, Mariella Schlossnagl and Daria Tschapanova during one semester.

The presentation will be followed by the big sommerbreak party with live acts and DJs at Freiraum St. Pölten.

It's a Date - with Tangente St. Pölten at Kulturheim Nord!

We would like to thank the OeAD — Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation for their generous support.

Date:
23.3.23 / 7:30 - 11:59 p.m.

Admission: 7:30 p.m.
Start: 8:00 p.m.
End: 00:00 a.m.

Location:
FREI:RAUM
Herzogenburger Straße 12
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

Summerbreak
Concert in FREI:RAUM

The Tangente Stadtprojekte seize the last week of school as an opportunity to celebrate once again. But it is not just any party. No! It's the first Tangente St. Pölten concert, inviting everyone over the age of 14 years to experience an unforgettable evening. Bring your friends or tie new friends and celebrate the start of summer with us!

BIBIZA will visit us in the state capital with his live band die, before he goes on the Vienna Schickeria Tour 2023 in the fall. As local support act More Than Friends awaits you.

Finally, DJ zey brings African diaspora sound, infused with R&B and hip-hop rhythms.

Date:
19.5.2023 / 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Meeting point:
Kulturheim Nord
Matthias-Corvinus-Straße 5
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

Who owns the city?
A walk through the Glanzstoffviertel with perfomative contributions on accessibility

At our next edition of "New Friendships - It's a Date!" on 19.5.2023, 6:00 pm, we will take a performative walk exploring the question: "Who owns the city?!".

Together with activists, artists and initiatives that advocate for the rights of people with cognitive and physical disabilities, we will visit places in the so-called Glanzstoffviertel.

Starting from the Kulturheim Nord, we will experience together artistic, activist and interactive contributions at different stations on the topics of barrier-free construction, mobility, inclusive leisure and educational opportunities, participation in art and cultural projects and see invisible realities in the cityscape. Our guests are: Felix Röper, Cornelia Scheuer, Edamwen Osakwe, Yuria Knoll, Cara Kremmel, Lillis Ballroom and DJ Okma & Relups.

We will end the evening with dinner and dancing at Kienzl Park near St. Pölten's main train station.

It’s a Date – mit der Tangente St. Pölten!

Date:
21.4.23 / 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Location:
Saal der Begegnung
Gewerkschaftsplatz 2
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

Everything about asylum
Who is allowed into Europe - and who is not?

Many of our new friends have one thing in common: they had to flee their countries! We dedicate our next event "New Friendships - It's a Date!" on 21.4.2023, starting at 6:00 pm at Saal der Begegnung, to them.

Together with partners from the world of art, activism and social work, we will reflect on how an ideal host society could think, act and function in an overall context today. In doing so, we shed light on current challenges, developments and grievances in the asylum system, especially in Lower Austria as well as in the entire federal territory, and we call for solidarity!

With contributions by SOS Balkanroute, Now you see me Moria, Fundacja Ocalenie, Seebrücke Herzogenburg, D.ID Dance Identity, PROSA – Projekt Schule für Alle, Ernst Schmiederer and Diakonie Flüchtlingstdienst.

It's a Date - with Tangente St. Pölten! This time at Saal der Begegnung.

Date:
24.3.2023 / 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Location:
Kulturheim Nord
Matthias-Corvinus-Straße 5
3100 St. Pölten

Thanks to our cooperation partners:
salam.oida
FH St Pölten - Department Soziales & Gesundheit
Diversity Café
Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst
the volunteers
and our cooks:
Janbibi, Marzieh, Arzo, Zargelon, Ferishta,
Yusra, Golstan, Nura, Irina, Natalya und Jana.

Tangente Sunset Dinner - Ramadan meal for all

Together with the team of the art and culture platform Salam Oida and experts from St. Pölten we cook Afghan, Syrian and Ukrainian dishes in the context of the fasting month Ramadan. On this evening we will not only share food, but also thoughts, ideas and emotions. Artist Clara Laila Abid Alsstar, composer Alireza Toghiyani and cabaret artist Nadina Memagić will contribute artistic contributions. All interested parties are invited to participate. We ask for registration with the subject "Tangente Sunset Dinner".

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Date:
7.6.2023 / 7:30 p.m.

Location:
Café at Festspielhaus St. Pölten
Kulturbezirk 2
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

Where is the big ship heading?

The Festspielhaus St. Pölten recently took on a new artistic director in Bettina Masuch. What new priorities does she set, what visions and intentions does she have for the house, which has been in existence since 1997? How are the programme and the location in the cultural district accepted by the local population? Will low-threshold formats bring new audiences in the future? And what points of contact and opportunities does the Festspielhaus offer for the local cultural scene (keyword: former Café Publik)? And what does the cooperation between the Festspielhaus and Tangente St. Pölten look like?

Date:
7.6.2023 / 7:30 pm

Location:
Cinema Paradiso
Rathausplatz 14
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

What´s up in the city centre?

Together with our cooperation partner, the Cinema Paradiso, and our guests: Alexander Syllaba (Cinema Paradiso), Caren Ohrhallinger (Architekturbüro nonconform), Jens de Buck (Stadtplanung St. Pölten), Flora Szurcsik-Nimmervoll (Studio Mars + Blum) and Dominik Scheuch (Yewo Landscapes) we want to find out how important the center, the so-called City, is for a city.

How important is the centre, the so-called city, for a city? What role do places like the Cinema Paradiso play here? What are the long-term experiences and challenges with the location on Rathausplatz and its various users? What social contribution does the Cinema Paradiso make to a lively city life? How do inner-city cultural venues relate to public space, mobility, architecture, administration and urban planning? What is the role of art and culture?

The evening will be moderated by Anna Soucek (Architekturnetzwerk „Orte“ / Ö1) and artistically rounded off by DJ frauB.

Date:
5.4.2023 / 7:30 p.m.

Location:
Löwinnenhof*
Hof 2, former Paradies der Fantasie
Linzerstraße 16
3100 St. Pölten

Free admission!

Who needs the local scene?

Tangente St. Pölten opens a new chapter in cultural policy. Where is the independent scene to be found in it? How does this term define itself in a medium-sized city like St. Pölten, which is in the process of further establishing itself culturally? An important step for this development was taken by a group of committed people. They convinced the politicians of the importance of applying for the European Capital of Culture. This was also the birth of the KulturhauptSTART association. The application failed, but the independent scene, the people behind it and the relevance for the city have remained. What role do places like the Sonnenpark or Löwinnenhof* play in St. Pölten's cultural landscape?

Contributions by Katharina Holzweber, Jolyane Langlois, Bianca Anne Braunesberger, Thomas Nagl aka reFelt and Rabe Anders (Tagtool).