Gessnerallee
Zürich

In «Ars moriendi» CapriConnection and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis struggled with the intangibility of death. Now they turn to the abundance of life: «Ars vivendi» is about the individual pursuit of happiness in times in which self-fulfilment has become quite an odyssey. A group of burnout patients seeks refuge in a remote place in order to calm down and find the necessary guidance in their existential identity crisis. In a concept of nature that only exists as a proxy for unfulfilled longings their passions manifest themselves more violently. The art of living would quickly turn into the art of surviving if it wasn’t for the unforgettable music!
CapriConnection and their successful piece «Tristan oder Isolde» was invited to the Gessnerallee in the context of the last edition of the Festspiele Zürich. After «Ars moriendi» that was invited to the 2011 theatre biennial Impulse CapriConnection again collaborate with the renown Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, university for Early Music. Under the musical direction of Anthony Rooley, a young ensemble of eight professional musicians revives madrigals of the Early Italian Barock, the «Lamento della Ninfa» (1638) by Claudio Monteverdi being the musical climax. Other compositions by Monteverdi, Orazio Vecchi, Carlo Gesualdo and Luzzasco Luzzaschi as well as interviews with experts of the art of living, quotations from classic films and texts about ars vivendi are involved in the scenic events and thereby draw a panorama of our contemporary struggles with life.