John Cage-Performance

In complete seriousness and with great concentration, the two women pluck their duet with the needles of the cacti. The aria is more meowed and barked, coughed and moaned than sung and warbled. Even the ordinary piano is prepared and sounds somehow different to normal. Who would be surprised then, that the other instruments include a cucumber slicer, a typewriter and other abstruse objects.

»Cage Up 2« is a calculated piece comprising music and sounds, fading and subsiding, theatrical humour and bizarre banality. It represents a tribute to American composer John Cage (1912-92), who influenced artistic production in the 50s in the musical, acting and visual field like almost no other. »Cage Up 2« is based on the song cycle »Song Books« (1958-70) and brings John Cage – a principal agent of experimental music – into the present, through a mix of cabaret and serious concert.

The Micro Oper was founded in 1991 by Cornelia Melián and Sabine Liebner, a laboratory for contemporary, interdisciplinary music experiments. It works both with soloists from the experimental music scene and with fine artists. With the pieces, »Der Schmutz« (»The Dirt«, 1996), »VEX – eine Medienoper« (»VEX – a media opera«, 1999) and »Ariadne« (2004), these two artists have made guest appearances at venues including the Münchner Musik Biennale, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, and Kampnagel in Hamburg.

»›Cage Up‹ – it does not only sound like the composer of the same name, but also like ketchup. If one understands about it mixed herbs, not an everything standardising tomato sauce, it applies to the performance by Cornelia Melián and Sabine Liebner … Because the histrionic humour and the perfect timing of the 60 minute evening … condense more and more to an excellent multi-course menu« (Klaus Kalchschmid, Süddeutsche Zeitung, München, 20.09.2005).