A Berlin performance of composer Max Richter's eight-hour "Sleep" project was the source of inspiration for pianist Kunal Lahiry, a fellow of the Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie and one of the most creative songwriters of his generation. In the staged Lied.Lab "Sleep Cycle of an Insomniac," he traces the parcours of consciousness between fatigue, insomnia, restless dreams and sudden awakenings in songs and works by Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Jake Heggie, Ivor Gurney, Max Richter and Rebecca Clarke, among others.
The programme was intended as a stimulating exploration of the phases of darkness and the memories, fears, and joys that arise during them. Not only do the boundaries between eras blur - from Brahms to George Crumb to Jake Heggie - but genres, stylistic heights and national languages also play associatively into one another. In addition to Lahiry at the piano, the singers Fanny Soyer (soprano), Hagar Sharvit (mezzo-soprano) and Jeeyoung Lim (bass-baritone), all three fellows of the Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie or the Liedwettbewerb "Das Lied", performed during the evening. The direction of Andrea Tortosa Baquero, the lighting design of Emilio Cordero Checa and the set design of Amir Baltic provided the aesthetic interplay of colors, sounds and sensations.
Lied.LAB took place as part of the Heidelberger Frühling Lied Festival 2022.