"A whirling panopticon in which dreamlike images fly past, flaring up explosively in light and rapidly vanishing into the dark." What Detlev Müller-Siemens fascinated about Walter Hasenclever's play "People" - which the libretto of his opera is based on - was "its shorthand dialogues, often no more than a series of seperate words barely expressive of the plot." The scenes are closely interrelated, and deal with aspects of human existence - like birth, death, power, oppression, law, murder, fear, loneliness - which are contrasted with withdrawn, gentle and quiet moments, islands, so to speak. The character of the music evolves between these two poles: Two extremes - a metallic cutting shrillness pressing ahead in abrupt thrusts like a mechanical chain, and gentle lines circling and interlacing as if in weightless, foliage-like profusion - interact to produce an often highly fused form of polyphony between which the music autonomously transmutes, allowing the play, is complement and equal, as much scope as possible.

Andrea Trauboth: soprano (Mädchen/Bettelmädchen) / Marianne Larsen: coloratura soprano (Lissi) / Madeleine Jalbert: alto (Wahrsagerin/Mutter) / Birgid Steinberger: coloratura soprano (Erste Hure) / Gillian Macdonald: lyric soprano (Zweite Hure) / Dorothea Unger: mezzo-soprano (Dritte Hure) / Waltraud Danner: soprano (Schatten) / Birgit Eger: soprano (Schatten) / Jelena Overmann: mezzo-soprano (Schatten) / Claude Pia: lyric soprano (Jüngling) / Doug Jones: tenor (Kopf/Gast) / Guy Renard: tenor (Bankier/Staatsanwalt) / Mark Holland: baritone (Alexander) / Gerolf Scheder: bass (Trinker/Arzt) / Anton Diakov: bass (Kellner) / Jürgen Stössinger (Mörder/Helfer/Präsident/Bettler), Michael McGrath (Sprecher/Schläger), Jeppe Mydtskov (Sprecher/Schläger), Thomas Stache (Sprecher/Schläger), Thomas Hardegger (Sprecher/Schläger): speaking parts / Chor des Theaters Basel / Basler Sinfonie-Orchester / conductor: Michael Boder