The performance Universe, Incomplete of the Ruhrtriennale 2018 in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum dealt with the torso of the Universe Symphony by Charles Ives. Director Christoph Marthaler, conductor Titus Engel, and set designer Anna Viebrock developed their own unique perspective on the American composer’s unfinished project.
The composer Charles Ives had not managed to complete his work Universe. In the event that I do not succeed in completing this work, perhaps someone else will be found who will attempt to elaborate my thoughts. It could be that the sketches I created make much more sense when viewed from the perspective of someone other than myself
Ives had noted. Inspired by this seductive formulation, director Christoph Marthaler, conductor Titus Engel and set designer Anna Viebrock developed their own unique perspective on an unfinished project by the American composer. Based on the actually composed parts of the work, they designed for the Ruhrtriennale 2018 in der Jahrhunderthalle Bochum einen szenisch-musikalischen Raum, in dem Instrumentalsolistinnen und -solisten sowie die Bochumer Symphoniker and an ensemble consisting of actors, dancers and singers looked back on today’s life from a distant future on a scenic and a sonic level and fantasized a future from the present. Other compositions by Charles Ives, independent of the Universe Symphony, have thereby occupied the voids of the unfinished universe.