The Halit Yozgat Murder Case – Discover Hanover…
On April 6, 2006, Halit Yozgat was shot dead in an internet café in Kassel. Members of the so-called National Socialist underground were identified as perpetrators. The case files of the criminal proceedings on the NSU murders were then blocked for 120 years, and after protests for 30 years. The trial was disappointing for Halit Yozgat’s relatives. The NSU ruling has not clarified important questions, including the dubious role of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
A production of the Staatsoper and Schauspiel Hannover in co-production with the Holland Festival
A commissioned work by the Hanover State Opera
premiere
Premiere on May 1st, 2022 in the Opera House
2 hours 10 minutes, no break
From 16 years
In his opera, the Australian composer, producer, sound artist and director Ben Frost takes the NSU murder of Halit Yozgat and how society deals with its consequences as an opportunity to consider our cultural value system. In this commissioned work by the State Opera in interdisciplinary cooperation with the theater, questions are asked about nothing less than our collective historical responsibility. Is there justice when the truth is constantly being reconstructed?
The opera makes reference to research by the independent research group Forensic Architecture. In a counter-research to the investigation into the murder of Halit Yozgat, all available information was compiled as precisely as in a scientific experiment: the replica internet café as the scene of the crime, statements by witnesses, images, noises, videos, login data. The space-time sequences of the seven witnesses, reconstructed to the second, allow for different event variants. This not only answers questions, but above all raises new ones. What exactly happened? And what are the consequences of doubts about how we deal with social values such as justice, questions of guilt and responsibility?
As a film composer, Ben Frost provided the music for television series such as power or Dark. Although well known in the electro scene, he wrote the music for this opera for acoustic instruments. In terms of sound, it lies between classic, minimal and heavy metal – the result is uniquely strong music that literally penetrates the body.
The premiere, which brings together the opera and drama ensemble and also the sound apparatus made up of members of the Lower Saxony State Orchestra to become part of the theatrical space, should already take place in March 2020. But shortly before the planned premiere, work on the production had to be stopped due to Corona. This extremely difficult phase of the rehearsal process for everyone involved became an artistic document itself: the film The Halit Yozgat murder case. An opera under quarantine by Ben Frost and Trevor Tweeten has since been shown at the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen and online at the Holland Festival, the Prototype Festival in New York and the Unsound Festival in Poznań.
Trigger hint:
The scenic repetition of the course of events in the staging The Halit Yozgat murder case can have a retraumatizing effect on people affected by (racist) violence.
Image Sources:
- The murder of Halit Yozgat: Hanover State Opera – © Richard Mosse