Hochgeschätztes Tiefparterre

Synopsis

The concert café ‘Tiefparterre’ is the pride and joy of its energetic owner, Donna. Together with her sharp-tongued daughter Luise, she manages – by the skin of her teeth – to scrape together the money for rent, electricity and suppliers month after month. Yet she feels richly rewarded. Through the affection of her quirky, family-like regulars and the gratitude of the artists to whom she lends a modest stage for their fine art, night after night.

But her carefree precarious existence is under threat. An unholy alliance of the property management, noise-plagued neighbours and an energetic franchisor wants to force her to give up. The troublesome artists’ haunt is to make way for a betting shop that is as inconspicuous as it is lucrative – with Donna as a profit-sharing franchisee. An immoral offer.

A chamber opera as a declaration of love to the regional league of the music scene: concert venues, jazz clubs and basement stages, where the next generation is pushing through and the veterans show once again what they’re made of. Too small for profit, too loud for the neighbours and far too insignificant for the arts pages.