NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS: Fleisch & Geist

In the organizer's words:

NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS will be bringing their eclectic and extremely successful production "Fleisch & Geist" from 2022 back to the stage at St. Elisabeth inSeptember 2025 .

"Beware, lest your hearts be weighed down with eating and drinking ..."

A woman sits at the front of the stage, speaking more than singing. Her tangled blonde hair covers her face. A sombre mood, muted colors, violet, mustard yellow, brown, old pink. Floating into other times, war, plague and yet the need for spiritual immersion. That's why there are books everywhere on the shelves at the back of the stage. Nicola Hümpel, director and head of NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS, combines the music of Heinrich Schütz and some of his contemporaries with contemporary sounds, dance and lots and lots of action in "Fleisch & Geist". Exuberant like baroque fireworks but always close to the abyss...
Frauke Thiele | rbb Kulturradio

In 2022, to mark the 350th anniversary of Heinrich Schütz's death, NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS dedicated themselves to the work of the early Baroque composer, who received his musical training in Kassel before studying the Italian style in Venice. For decades, he shaped musical life in Dresden as court conductor before retiring to Weißenfels. With his madrigals and motets, his Symphoniae Sacrae and Passions, he had already achieved European significance.

The scenic project "Flesh and Spirit" explores the inner and outer coordinates of his art, heavenly faith and earthly desire and the current resonance of such an attitude. At the end of the Gutenberg galaxy, the cosmos of books from whose words Schütz and his contemporaries drew their sacred and secular works will be surveyed once again.

The historically informed performance practice does not serve as an unshakeable pedestal for a monument, but as a vibrating platform for the revival of the artist in his and our sound worlds, which meet at eye level in different forms of performance - music, dance, song, language.

Cast "Flesh & Spirit"
Artistic direction: Nicola Hümpel
Musical direction: Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir
Stage: Oliver Proske
Dramaturgy: Andreas Hillger

By and with: (Performances 2022, updates may follow)
Baroque violin: Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir
Guitars & lute: Daniel Seminara
Recorder & baroque violin: Anna Fusek / Kerstin Fahr
Viola da gamba & violone: Alon Portal
Percussions & Synthesizer: Philipp Kullen
Soprano: Peyee Chen

Mezzo-soprano: Daniela Vega, Ekaterina Bazhanova
Bass-baritone: Matthias Lutze
Dance & Breakdance: Choreography, Florian Graul
Dance & Choreography: Martin Buczko
Dance & Choreography: Yui Kawaguchi

Costumes: Nicola Hümpel, Marie Akoury
Lighting: Leroy Nikolas von Bergen

Sound: Sebastian Reuter
Stage design assistance: Sonja Winkler, Lara Scheuermann
Artistic collaboration: Wolke Mišewitch
Production: Talea Nuxoll, Franziska K. Huhn, Leonie Schirra

Price information:

Category A: € 24.00, Category B: € 18.00, reduced € 12.00 online via eventim. Remaining tickets at the Box Office.