During a party in Berlin’s most famous techno club, a tourist collapses. The reason: intoxication with ecstasy – two highly dosed pills that she swallowed within an hour. After a few hours, her death is determined.

Until this incident, no deaths had been reported from the club. Every weekend, thousands of visitors from all over the world move in unison to the beat on the world’s most popular dance floor. Limited access. Not everyone is allowed to enter the huge industrial venue – at the end of an eternally long queue, the bouncer decides whether you are allowed in or not. The criteria for this decision, however, are arbitrary and non-transparent. The excess lasts for a whole weekend – from Saturday evening to Monday morning, an exclusive, selected crowd of people outspend themselves in the CHURCH. Those who didn’t manage to get in will never know what happens inside, because cameras and cell phones are strictly forbidden in the TEMPLE.

Clubbing to Death is the goal of many partygoers. This metaphorical saying became real in one instance. In her exit aria, Jessica sings about the events of this tragic night. The tragedy crystallizes as soon as Jessica realizes that the wheel cannot be turned back and while her organs fail, she becomes an icon of devotion in front of the gigantic club machine. And as in classical opera, dying becomes spectacular in this technoid epos.

The radio-phonic techno opera “Excess” speculatively tells of dying in the club. In an uninterrupted techno set, the protagonist Jessica sings her death aria. Similar to the famous death arias of classical opera (also called Aria Finale or Exit Aria), Jessica gathers her last strength to say goodbye to this world in her last breaths.

COMPOSITION, CO-DIRECTION

2023

Libretto by Noam Brusilovsky

RBB KULTUR

22.09.2023 Premiering Broadcast
24.09.2023