Der Sandmann — Handmade Theatre Magic Across Music and Image

The Luxembourg premiere of Der Sandmann took place at Mierscher Kulturhaus on 15 March 2024. The production places Judit Varga’s Nachtstücke for saxophone and piano inside a multimedia theatre concert inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s dark, visually charged stories.

Andreas Mader performs on saxophones and Christos Papandreopoulos at the piano. Alongside them, Maxime Weinmann operates the hand-controlled visual elements at a worktable visible to the audience. Live camera images, analogue objects, gears, hands, projection and computer-assisted real-time processing respond closely to the musical accents.

The review describes the production as passionate theatre craft at the boundary between music and visual performance. The project was developed jointly by Mierscher Kulturhaus, the duo Mader/Papandreopoulos, Fly Theatre and Gaudeamus Muziekweek. Robin Beer created the visual concept and real-time projections, with Weinmann performing the live visual part on stage.

For Judit Varga, the production extends the dramatic and tactile imagination of Nachtstücke beyond the score: the music becomes part of a shifting play of light, shadow, space and live physical action.