RUBEN ZAHRA Salt-ice, a fairy tale of salt and ice (children’s origami opera) for children’s choir, piano and soundtrack

Tricia Dawn Williams piano
Barbora Seidlová narrator
Pupils of the dance department of ZUŠ Veveří
Children’s choir of ZUŠ Orchidea
Ruben Zahra music and direction
script Susanne Felicitas Wolf
choreography Pamela Kerr
costums and props Polly Verity, Kaori Kato
pop-up paper sculpture Peter Dahmen
origami figures Peter Buchan Symons
project leader Kristýna Drášilová

SALT-ICE is a children’s opera by Ruben Zahra which adopts paper-art as the primary medium for the costumes and set design through the application of origami techniques. The story, written by Susanne Felicitas Wolf, follows the adventure of Katharina and her brother Martin as they travel trough the mountains, across the salt mines and ice caves. This fairy-tale landscape is represented through pop-up paper sculptures that are revealed on stage by the narrator and projected as the scenography of the performance. The contemporary aesthetics of the production are reflected both in the choreography as well as the music, scored for a children’s choir, piano and an electronic soundtrack. SALT-ICE was commissioned by the Bad Ischl Salzkammergut European Capital of Culture 2024.

We would like to thank ZUŠ Veveří and ZUŠ Orchidea for their cooperation on this project.  We also thank Divadlo Radost.

Salt-Ice is supported by  Arts Council Malta.