History of alienation and colonial violence
Beat Furrer’s new opera “DAS GROSSE FEUER” will be premiered in Zurich

Beat Furrer’s latest opera “DAS GROSSE FEUER”, which will be premiered on 23 March 2025 at the Opernhaus Zürich, draws on the novel “Eisejuaz” by the Argentinian writer Sara Gallardo (1931–88). In 1960 she researched the living conditions of an indigenous tribe in northern Argentina and turned her conversations with the Indian Lisandro Vega, known as Eisejuaz, into the basis of a magnificent linguistic work of art. The Austrian writer Thomas Stangl has based his libretto on the novel, which was published in 1971.

In the opera, Eisejuaz’s story is told in an inner monologue, in time jumps, overlapping levels of reality and dreams.. After his family flees from the forests into the city of white men to escape famine, he is brought up in a Christian mission. He works there as an overseer and later – of all things – in a sawmill, thus destroying his natural habitat. After the early death of his wife he leaves the mission and the sawmill. In the realisation that “el monte” is destroyed, that the inhabitants are dying of hunger or from the diseases of the white man, or are defencelessly at the mercy of white interests, “Eisejuaz” is the story of an alienation, and colonial violence.

“Eisejuaz” is a novel of inner voices and linguistic sounds. Beat Furrer develops his musical structure out of the narrative style of multiple voices. In his opera, instrumental and vocal sounds combine almost completely: “The orchestra is the resonating space of the parts or blends with a web of voices in the tutti scenes: it sings, screams or whispers, as in the chorus of workers in the sawmill.” The whole opera is developed from a choral principle: the twelve-voice vocal ensemble is the starting point of the composition. “There are choral moments which are overlaid by the solo protagonists, but there are also very widely spaced polyphonic structures: whispering, calling, shouting, which are added by the orchestra.“

Beat Furrer will be conducting the premiere himself. Members of the Philharmonia Zürich will be joined by the Austrian vocal ensemble Cantando Admont. The opera house was able to secure the director Tatjana Gürbaca for the production. (photo. Manu Theobald)

Beat Furrer: DAS GROSSE FEUER. Oper nach dem Roman Eisejuaz von Sara Gallardo. Libretto von Thomas Stangl. Auftragswerk des Opernhauses Zürich
World Premiere: 23.3.2025, Cantando Admont, Philharmonia Zürich, Conductor: Beat Furrer, Director: Tatjana Gürbaca, further performances: 25., 28., 30.3., 4., 6., 11.4.2025
www.opernhaus.ch