Mediterraneo is an extraordinary opera project in cooperation with Theater Morgenstern. It is a social project that promotes encounters, dialog and mutual inspiration between young German musicians and artists from Syria.
The small baroque band led by Matthias Haase (an ensemble of the Leo Kestenberg Music School), the South African director Kobie van Rensburg, the singers Celina Jimènez Haro, Stelina Apostolopoulou, Amèlie Saadia, Iddo Bet Hallahmi, Robert Macfarlane, William Kwiatkowski and some young Syrian musicians create a gripping, multicultural and multilingual theater evening dedicated to the themes of crossing the Mediterranean, homelessness and exile, using baroque affect theory and modern projection techniques.
The universal language of music enables intensive communication about complex, highly emotional topics of the refugee crisis such as pain, anger and grief over the loss of the old homeland from a very personal perspective.
At the same time, the integration into the new environment and getting to know a new, European culture is addressed with a view to the future.
Rehearsals and performances took place in the refugee accommodation in Friedenau Town Hall in August 2016. Music education initiatives and workshops supervised by experienced music therapists for the residents of the Friedenau town hall and the Handjerystrasse shared accommodation promote the refugees' contact with European music culture.
