WHITE ALBUM

1968 is the year of disillusionment - the flowers and global messages of love from the "Summer of Love" of the previous year give way to street clashes and social unrest, withering in the bitter confrontation with racist world views and reactionary politics.

This year sees the release of the Beatles' ninth album, which has the truly thankless task of measuring itself against the epochal masterpiece "Sgt. Pepper's" from the previous year. But with their self-titled album "The Beatles", the Beatles once again set a new pop standard, far from repeating themselves or emulating a recipe for success. An album that presents an even more mature band, a band that is more strongly characterized by four individuals than ever before. After the exuberant colorfulness of Sgt. Pepper, the album presents itself in a minimalist white record sleeve and will henceforth write pop history as the "White Album".

The Beatles made tabula rasa and realized their individual preferences on a double album with a previously unheard range from acoustic ballads to country and western and hard rock to experimental avant-garde collage in the style of Stockhausen. The white album becomes a huge success, a success that proves for the first time that pop culture can also grow up and is capable of creatively processing inner and outer tensions. However, the process is by no means painless. Neither for the Beatles nor for those around them, which makes the theater evening at the Rigiblick all the more exciting.

Their musical producer George Martin became their most important ally after manager Brian Epstein took his own life the previous year. Epstein's dramatic view of the Beatles' year 1967 was sensitively staged in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", while Alexandre Pelichet will shed light on the "White Album" phenomenon from George Martin's perspective. The musical highlights and controversies will again be heard in new arrangements for band and orchestra. Daniel Rohr will lead through the evening and conjure up the immortal pop history of the White Album together with the extraordinary singers Lukas Langenegger and Levin Deger and the singer Rislane El Harat. While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Revolution, Blackbird, Julia, Helter Skelter, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and and and and...