Notes from the production
Last Friday, the new production of Cabaret premiered at the Residenztheater Munich. I was responsible for the sound compositions. By that I mean the sound in the moments between the songs — the material that connects the numbers without becoming a song itself.
For these in-between spaces, director Claus Guth introduced a term I find very accurate: “guided silence.” A sonic layer that keeps the ear alert and receptive, preparing the next song without anticipating it.
The production is set in a modest hotel in an American city in the 1980s. This comes with a naturalistic sound layer: the city outside, the building itself, dripping pipes, distant noises. Running alongside this, almost constantly, is a musical layer — sustained chords, isolated tones, minimal tensions. Music that does not want to be music, but still carries the scene.
The work constantly moves between music and non-music, between atmosphere and structure. What the audience experiences as subtle is, in practice, highly detailed work. These backgrounds are often assumed to be easy. They are not. When they don’t fit, when something is off, you notice immediately – and then they do more harm than good.
Quiet does not automatically mean simple. And this precise work in the background was my task for this production.
Cabaret
Musical by Joe Masteroff (book), John Kander (music), and Fred Ebb (lyrics), based on the play I Am a Camera by John van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.
Premiere: December 12, 2025
Residenztheater Munich
Info: https://www.residenztheater.de/stuecke/detail/cabaret
Emcee: Vincent Glander
Sally Bowles: Vassilissa Reznikoff
Clifford Bradshaw: Michael Goldberg, Thomas Hauser
Fraulein Schneider: Cathrin Störmer
Herr Schultz: Robert Dölle
Ernst Ludwig: Vincent zur Linden
Fraulein Kost: Myriam Schröder
Boy: Quentin Becker / Leo Funk
Direction: Claus Guth
Musical Director: Stephen Delaney
Associate Musical Director: Philip Tillotson
Set Design: Étienne Pluss
Costume Design: Bianca Deigner
Sound Composition: Mathis Nitschke
Lighting Design: Gerrit Jurda
Choreography: Sommer Ulrickson
Dramaturgy: Yvonne Gebauer, Almut Wagner
Fotos: Monika Rittershaus
Press
“Time and again, Guth lets the Cabaret hits break off abruptly. The opera director—working with actors for the first time here—uses an opportunity theatre offers unlike opera: letting the music end, playing with silence. This lends his Cabaret concept the subtle eeriness the material needs in order to ultimately tip over.” (BR)
“the brilliant sound design by Mathis Nitschke” (Merkur)
“Claus Guth has lovingly updated and skilfully sharpened the original, which—made harmless and cosy by its fame—had begun to feel a little dated. Mathis Nitschke’s surprisingly defamiliarizing sound composition helps—like a shellac record that has jumped its groove.” (Welt)
“At the latest, the entire audio and sound team around Mathis Nitschke deserves praise beyond Marius Jud’s ‘among others’: what all too often turns into a crushing roar across stage and auditorium instead unites, with nuance, language, dance, singing, and sounds throughout the evening.” (NMZ)
