Sillons de Mémoires in full length is a collaborative work in four acts in co-creation with composer Dzovinar Mikirditsian, Eklekto and the Opernhaus Zürich. The opera refers to traces that inscribe themselves indelibly into bodies, biographies, and collective memories. At the heart of this music theatre performance are questions of home, migration, and displacement, as well as the fragility of memory and its simultaneous persistence. How vivid, how fleeting and ephemeral is memory? What happens when the memory of a place becomes fragmented, contested, or erased? How do experiences of war, crisis, and loss shape one’s self-image and one’s outlook on the future?
Récits of the Desert – Acts of Resistance is dedicated to forms of humanitarian, artistic, and political activism in the shadow of the borderlands between the United States and Mexico, particularly in the border regions south of San Diego. Katharina Rosenberger has been active in this area as both an artist and teacher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) between 2008 and 2020. The work draws in particular on the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a project developed by the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 / b.a.n.g. lab, including collaborations with humanitarian initiatives such as Border Angels.
This video documentation offers insights into selected sections of the work:
Prologue (2026)
Audio Installation: Raphael Paciorek / Steven Whiting
Topographies (2025/2026)
, Installation: Louis Delignon / Katharina Rosenberger
Récits of the Desert – Acts of Resistance (2025/2026)
Music theatre in one act for soprano, tenor, percussion quartet, and turntables: Katharina Rosenberger
Recorded during the dress rehearsal on 4 February 2026 and the performances from 5–7 February 2026 at Opernhaus Zürich – Studiobühne.
Cast Opernhaus
Zürich
Flavia — Flavia Stricker (Soprano)
Sam — Samuel Wallace (Tenor)
With members of the SoprAlti and Extra Chorus of Opernhaus Zürich,
and the Extras Association of Opernhaus Zürich
and
Eklekto — Percussion, Turntables, Performance
Anne Briset / Louis Delignon / Corentin Marillier / Pascal Viglino
Steven Whiting — Direction, Choreography
Jana Beckmann — Dramaturgy
Libretto — Transborder Immigrant Tool Poetry
Amy Sara Carroll (EDT 2.0 member) — Poetry
Ricardo Dominguez — Spoken Text
Katharina Rosenberger — Text (Aria "Água comida roupas quentes")
Michelle Ettlin — Video Documentation
We thank very much the Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 / b.a.n.g. Lab — micha cárdenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez, Elle Mehrmand, and Brett Stalbaum — for permission to use the poems and audio recordings. For further information about the Transborder Immigrant Tool Project: https://tbt.hemi.press/
“Se essa rua fosse minha” – Traditional Brazilian children’s song (public domain)
A trailer presenting the complete production of Sillons de Mémoires is currently in preparation. A link will be added here soon.