Adam Linder

Bernard Marie-Koltès described his 1985 work “In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields“ like an encounter between a bluesman and a punk. Perhaps more than an exploration of mercantile activity or the transaction of late-night cruising, his play is a speculation on the individual’s capacity to know another.

Adam Linder, whose work has regularly been presented at HAU, has made an opera with a score by Ethan Braun and stage by Shahryar Nashat.

His new creation is inspired by Koltes’ preoccupation with ‘the deal’. “The WANT“ is an exchange sung by four performers, with a libretto that is littered with interjections from Jacques Derrida to Missy Elliott. Linder approaches the business of language as the Self’s gateway drug between rational thought and rhapsodic expression. Doesn’t the interplay of language rendered in vocal music parallel the dynamics of various markets? The singers, actors and dancers Jess Gadani, Justin F. Kennedy, Jasmine Orpilla, and Roger Sala Reyner are ‘Offerors’ and ‘Offerees’ enrobed as the key archetype of mercantile Europe. Engaging a virtuosic performativity, these players embody the spiritual tradition of that figure: a constant trade between a reflexive mind and sensuous being.

After the performance on December 15 there will be an artist talk with Adam Linder, Ethan Braun and Alexandra Holtsch.