SUPERHELDENNORMALOS

In the organizer's words:

With "Superheldennormalos", a community opera is being realized for the first time at the Cologne Children's Opera. Around 100 children and young people aged between ten and eighteen have developed the piece under professional artistic and educational guidance in various workshops. From finding the theme and writing the libretto to composing the music and designing the stage and costume design, the "baton" was passed from one workshop group to the next. Finally, other children and young people will appear on stage as a project choir alongside the singers of the Cologne Opera's International Opera Studio and, accompanied by the Gürzenich Orchestra, also as performers, working on the opera with a professional directing team. The result is "Superheldennormalos" - an opera about the search for identity, about the fears, wishes and dreams of children and young people, in which adults are also likely to find themselves. Tamina is overwhelmed. At home, she has to babysit her siblings, keep calm and maintain an overview of the ever-growing chaos. But she only wants one thing: to write, retreat into her own four walls and give free rein to her creativity ...

Max struggles every week at soccer training, where he is regularly bullied by the coach and his teammates. But Max has a dream: he wants to become a designer and launch his own fashion show. Sammy longs to be allowed to just be a child again, to feel safe, to dream. She is drawn deeper and deeper into the hole of depression. All she wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be. Wisi spends most of the day looking after other people. There is so much to do. There's the grandma she has to help across the road, the dog that has run away. And then there's Tamina, Max and Sammy, for whom she would like to be more of a friend. Because Wisi has a special gift: she can read people's feelings. At the superhero workshop, however, she learns an important lesson about herself. Manuel Moser, who has been head of the Theater for Young Audiences department at COMEDIA since 2019, has been recruited to direct this special project, which is being realized in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theater Köln and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln. Rainer Mühlbach is responsible for the overall musical direction,
director of the International Opera Studio and musical director of the Cologne Children's Opera since 2012/13.