Oliver Steller - Balladen - Das Gedicht Plus
Oliver Steller speaks and sings ballads - “The Poem Plus”
Oliver Steller will go on tour in Germany again in spring 2025. After 5 years, he finally has a new program: “Ballads – The Poem Plus”.
For 30 years, he has been collecting these text hybrids. Ballads are lyrical like a poem, epic like a novel, and exciting like a thriller. The ballad is the poem plus! The modern troubadour speaks and sings the ballads to music. The themes have not changed to this day: love, life, death, nature, and the great events of the time.
Oliver Steller has gathered all the greats, including Goethe and Schiller with their ballad competition from 1797. In that year, Heinrich Heine was born, who, for Oliver Steller, alongside Else Lasker-Schüler and Friedrich Hölderlin, is one of the greatest German poets.
The human being in his environment is a major theme of the 19th century, which among others Annette von Droste-Hülshoff captures so impressively with her “Boy in the Moor.” Karoline von Günderrode is a wonderful discovery for Oliver Steller, so strong, so clear, and yet so torn. In just 26 years, she leaves behind a powerful body of work, including the ballad “The Mourner and the Elves.”
Theodor Fontane spoiled Oliver Steller with his “Mr. von Ribbeck” back in third grade. He had to recite the ballad in front of the class, was laughed at, and got a 6. After that, poems were dead to him. Oliver Steller rediscovered his love for literature after school. Today he enjoys speaking about Mr. von Ribbeck with the children again and again.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer with his ballad “Feet in the Fire” opened Oliver Steller's eyes to the expulsion of Protestants in France, the so-called Huguenots. The French were so thorough that today only two percent of Protestants live in France.
Also included in the program are Adelbert von Chamisso with his giant plaything, Otto Ernst with Nis Randers, Morgenstern's werewolf, Erich Kästner’s factual romance, and a ballad that has a special place in Oliver Steller's heart. Since his collaboration with Heinz Kahlau, the master student of Bertolt Brecht and a shared Brecht program with Lutz Görner, this ballad has accompanied him: “The Legend of the Origin of the Book Tao Te Ching on Lao Tzu's Emigration Path.” It is considered a work of exile literature. For Oliver Steller, it is a tribute to Heinz Kahlau and to his mentor Lutz Görner, who died last spring.
For the first time, there will be no CD for the program. Oliver Steller has printed a book with ballads and photographs in which the songs and texts can be downloaded for free via a QR code. The book will be available in his shop for €49 starting November 2024.
All dates at: Concerts
Oliver Steller, born in ‘67, is the "voice of German lyric" according to FAZ. Originally a musician, he has also set many poems to music in this program. His lyrical conversational tone leads through the evening and transforms the ballads into a total work of art that is cheerful and entertaining, but also very profound!
Press comments:
“Steller is not only a reciter but also a master of his craft as a guitarist” - Westfälischer Anzeiger
“Who can comfort and delight with a sentence? The reciter. No one can do it as brilliantly as Oliver Steller, not least because he is also a musician” - Westfälische Nachrichten
“Oliver Steller delivers a show that balances concert, talk, and storytelling. An acoustic guitar, an amplifier – the stage setup is sparse. But that is all that is needed, as the protagonist of the evening knows how to captivate with unrestrained flow of speech, a quest for punchlines, staged Q&A with the audience, blues and groove, and an unwavering love for words, humor, and wordplay”
Kölner Stadtanzeiger
“The Robert Gernhardt Program bright&quick is a virtuous fusion of cheerful and profound poems. Oliver Steller can simply empathize enormously well with poetry. He recites some texts in such an outstanding manner that they are almost new creations” - Gießener Anzeiger
“Oliver Steller is an excellent interpreter” - Kölnische Rundschau
Admission from 7:30 PM