a thought-experiment for the senses

Earthrise tells of a world losing its mind. In the year 1624 (or 2024) while political and religious forces fight for influence, scientific research unravels crucial data that calls into question our way of thinking about our place in the universe – and we react with nothing but confusion and embarrassment.

With his science-fiction novel The Dream, the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) tried to advance a new worldview by speaking to his readers’ imaginations: what would our world look like if seen from the Moon? Kepler suffered in his struggle against dogmatism. He even needed to defend his own mother Katharina Kepler (1546–1622) in a witchcraft trial. However, he never ceased to believe in the secret harmony governing the world; a harmony we experience only through the sciences and the arts.

Inspired by the lives of Johannes and Katharina Kepler, the music theatre work Earthrise combines 17th-century compositions with genre-bending new music by composer Juha T. Koskinen and vocal artist Anni Elif Egecioglu. The libretto for this work is devised by writer-director Aleksi Barrière. Cembalist Marianna Henriksson invites music by Kepler’s contemporaries such as Capricornus, Galilei, Scheidt, or Harant to enter a dialogue with this music of our time.

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synopsis

Earthrise is based on Johannes Kepler’s The Dream (posthumously published in 1634) and the astronomer’s life. Kepler saw fictional writing, visual arts, and music as useful devices that could illuminate science and expand its methods and audiences. He was also inspired by traditional practices and intercultural exchange. Although he didn’t acknowledge it until later in his career, a deep influence came from his mother Katharina, who was versed in natural medicine.

Earthrise unfolds as a chain of dreams and associations, inviting perpetual shifts of perspective so necessary in our time. Through international collaboration, multiple art forms and musical voices weave together, not to create the biography of a man but rather a thought-experiment for the senses.

creative team and performers

Text and stage direction: Aleksi Barrière
New music: Juha T. Koskinen
Old music montage and ensemble direction: Marianna Henriksson
Singer/vocal improviser: Anni Elif Egecioglu
Actor: Thomas Kellner
Ensemble: Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO)
Lighting design: Étienne Exbrayat
Set design: Aleksi Barrière and Étienne Exbrayat

Production: Helsinki Early Music Festival
Coproduction: Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) and La Chambre aux échos
In collaboration with: the Finnish National Opera

photos of the creative team

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