1,000 liters of blood, three tons of grapes, 6,000 liters of wine: it’s served at the Lower Austrian castle of Prinzendorf. The first part of the six-day play by Hermann Nitsch’s Orgien-Mysterien-Theater will take place there today and tomorrow. After the death of the famous painter on April 18, his widow Rita, his son Leonhard Kopp, Nitsch assistant Josef Smutny and conductor Andrea Cusumano are responsible for the spectacle.
“The effort is huge, the preparation extremely intensive,” says Rita Nitsch the OÖN. There are 100 musicians and 100 performers alone who, like the 500 participants, have to be fed.
In terms of content, the festival is intended to celebrate life and existence: “Hermann always said it should be the most beautiful festival of mankind,” says Rita Nitsch. There is no chronological plot: “But Hermann wrote an exact score of what happened when,” says the widow. The six-day game had been planned for a long time, but had to be postponed several times due to Corona. Now Rita Nitsch decided to organize the first two days of the festival this year: “That was his wish.” The remaining four days are to follow in 2023 and 2024.
In total, there were more than 150 actions by Nitsch’s Orgien-Mysterien-Theater, but there was only one six-day play in 1998 at Schloss Prinzendorf. The actions were often controversial because, among other things, crucifixions were re-enacted, blood was spilled on naked people and animals were slaughtered. This time, the evisceration of animals with entrails is only simulated, says Nitsch. There is dancing, painting, eating, celebrating: “It should be a celebration of life.”
- Live Insights The six-day game is available via Instagram, on Sunday the festival will be broadcast live from 1 p.m. to the Nitsch-Museum Mistelbach.
- Information and registration at nitschmuseum.at
Source: Nachrichten
