Heimkehr – A Tone Poem

PROGRAMME
Texts by Ingeborg Bachmann based on Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” and by Lajos Parti-Nagy, inspired by Imre Kertész’s “Fatelessness” Hans-Werner Henze (1926–2012) - “The Idiot”: a mimodrama with scenes from Dostoevsky’s novel of the same name by Judit Varga (b. 1979) – New work: a commission by the JCOM (2026)

JEWISH

The question of homecoming has shaped 20th-century Jewish history. But how can a return home be possible when the world of yesteryear no longer exists? Drawing on Imre Kertész’s “Fatelessness” and Hans Werner Henze’s musical setting of a monologue written by Ingeborg Bachmann based on Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot”, “Heimkehr” brings together different perspectives on memory, loss and belonging. The newly composed music by Judit Varga brings the works together into a powerful whole. Hans Werner Henze and Ingeborg Bachmann would both have celebrated their 100th birthdays this year.

TODAY
In an age of wars, refugee flows, social tensions and personal upheavals, the evening raises questions that could scarcely be more topical: Where do we belong? What remains when the familiar is lost? And how can a new beginning succeed? Between memory and the present, a musical and literary dialogue emerges about humanity, responsibility and the hope of finding a way forward despite all the ruptures.

FOR EVERYONE
Everyone knows the feeling of returning to a place and realising that nothing is as it used to be – or that you yourself have changed. “Homecoming” explores this universal experience in its most existential forms: loss and longing, alienation and closeness, and the search for a place in the world. Music, drama and literature merge to create an intense evening of theatre.