Oh To Believe

in Another World

In Oh To Believe in Another World, Dmitri Shostakovich's 10th Symphony is performed alongside a stop-motion film by the 2025 Festival’s artist-in-residence, William Kentridge.

The film serves as a visual counterpoint to the monumental symphony and sheds light on the composer’s complex relationship with the Soviet regime. Inside a seemingly abandoned Soviet museum, crafted from cardboard in Kentridge's studio, we encounter Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin; Shostakovich and his student Elmira Nazirova; and Mayakovsky and his lover Lilya Brik. The characters in the film are puppets, all within Kentridge's unmistakable visual style.

Written the summer following Stalin's death, the symphony has been described as an optimistic tragedy, and is performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christian Blex.

‘The task of the project is to try to show within the visual film some of the ambiguities Shostakovich had to navigate, not just in this symphony but in all the work that he made,’ writes William Kentridge in his introduction to the work.

The South African artist has been internationally recognized for his drawings, films, installations, and theatre and opera productions for several decades. At the 2025 Bergen International Festival, he is also presenting the opening performance The Great Yes, the Great No.

Photo: Stella Olivier

Utopia, symphony and video art

Saturday 24 May at 18:00 in Spissen. Doors open at 17:30.

Before the concert, there will be an introductory talk about Dmitri Shostakovich' 10th Symphony and William Kentridge's Oh To Believe in Another World. The discussion will include the historic and political backdrop for Shostakovich' music and the composer's relationship to Sovjet communism's utopias.

In the panel is Professor Ingunn Lunde, Professor and leader at the Center for Grieg Research Arnulf Christian Mattes, and Professor Eirik Vassenden.

• Entrance: Included in the concert ticket

• Language: The talk will be held in Norwegian

A collaboration between the Bergen International Festival and UiB Innsikt.

The introduction is a part of the Festival debates programme and is supported by Fritt Ord.

Contributors

• William Kentridge director

• Christian Blex conductor

• Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

• Greta Goiris costume and puppet designer

• Sabine Theunissen set and model design

• Janus Fouché, Žana Marović editors

• Duško Marović, SASC cinematography

• Kim Gunning video control

• Thulani Chauke, Andrea Fabi, Teresa Phuti Mojela, Luc De Wit, Phuphuma Love Minus (Isicathamiya chorus) cast

Works

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
  Symphony no. 10 in E minor, op. 93

Produced by

• Numa Bischof Ullmann project initiator

• THE OFFICE performing arts + film executive producer

• Toured in partnership with international theatrical representative QUATERNAIRE

Oh To Believe in Another World has been commissioned by the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester.

Made possible by

The Iwona and Bjarne Rieber Charitable Foundation