The Relatives

Sunday 8 November 2026, 6pm

Tischlerei — Deutsche Oper Berlin, Germany

Tickets: €35 / €18 Concessions

Book via Deutsche Oper Berlin

What remains of a family whose home keeps disappearing?

The Relatives is a musical documentary theatre that follows the family history of composer Sergej Newski. Based on interviews with his grandmother Anna Timofeevna Kravchenko and unique Super 8 recordings from 1968, the result is a multimedia narration across four generations, from 1912 to the present.

The form is radical: a video conference between times and augmented reality as a dramaturgic principle. Interviews and documentary materials transform into a conversation that blurs the lines between past and present. Cutting-edge AI morphs live camera feeds and archival materials into one another, not as a technical spectacle but as a way to search for a believable form in which the story can be told.

People are shown in a state of seemingly endless, intergenerational flight, maintaining their ethos in the most impossible circumstances. People who do not sacrifice their empathy. People who can laugh and find the most unconventional solutions in their fight for survival.

This is an international co-production that asks: How do we remember that which cannot be told? How do we give shape to the act of vanishing?

Artists

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Titus Engel Conductor

Creative Team

Sergej Newski Composer, staging and concept
Gareth Mattey Librettist
Yan Kalnberzin Stage design, videography and light design
Taran Singh AI-assisted live processing
Stephan Meier Dramaturgical consultant

Programme

Sergej Newski (b.1972): The Relatives: Videoconference of a Crimean Family 1912–2025 (2025–26)

This event is organised by Deutsche Oper Berlin in collaboration with VOICES FESTIVAL BERLIN, Karsten Witt Musikmanagement, Musik der Jahrhunderte/Festival ECLAT and BCMG, supported by CreaTech Frontiers and Arts Council England.

Want to get involved? 

Our wonderful supporters mean we can commission The Relatives as a full-length opera. We say thank you by naming them in the score, inviting them to rehearsals, and the world première, where they can meet the composer.

For more info visit www.bcmg.org.uk/sound-investment. You can support a piece as a one-off through Sound Investment or give monthly through Sound Investment Monthly.

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