Queens
Performance des Opernlabor-Ensembles
Outreach
from 10
About the project
Inspired by Mozart's The Magic Flute, young people aged between 14 and 24 have been on an artistic journey of discovery since October 2024.
In an intensive rehearsal and research process, they created new interpretations and scenarios that oscillate between spoken theater, opera and contemporary music theater.
With a fresh, feminist perspective and specially invented characters, the ensemble questions central themes such as love, power, identity and belonging. The classic material is rethought, improvised, discussed and tested for its relevance today - powerful, courageous, polyphonic.
A strong, young ensemble - eleven women and one man - creates a magical world of self-determination in Queens, between the magic of love and the trials of life, in which traditional role models are renegotiated.
In touching, often harsh scenes, a story unfolds about various mother-daughter relationships, a desire to belong in life and the trials that await us in life.
But perhaps not every test has to be passed - and does true love even exist?
Between quiet doubts, rebellious words and big decisions is the question: can we still fall in love with an image, an idea, a utopia today or are we afraid of truly big feelings?
Queens is also an invitation to the audience to experience familiar narratives anew and to associate freely. Participation is absolutely encouraged at some points!
Intimate, small moments meet large group and choral scenes, quiet words and monologue moments break into powerful musical outbursts.
The costumes reflect the contrast in black and white. In Queens, queens - those who want to be, or those who can't believe they already are - play with light and darkness. Spaces open up for dreams, doubts and resistance.
The stage space is reminiscent of the forecourt of a well-known Viennese subway station and brings the urban space into the theater to negotiate both public and very private moments.
At the end, all voices rise in a musical finale: Ich wünsch dir Glück - a song that gives no answers, but celebrates the courage to go one's own way and makes the stars twinkle not only in the stage set.
The Opera Lab is a participatory project of the Vienna State Opera and is aimed at all young people between the ages of 14 and 24 who would like to create their own piece or share a stage with professional musicians from the Vienna State Opera.
Anyone can take part - there is no audition and no prior knowledge is expected. The only requirement: The desire and courage to try something new together.
Applications for the new opera lab ensemble for the 2025/26 season will open in October 2025 at outreach@wiener-staatsoper.at