Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Encyclopedia
Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Die Tod-Verweigerung (The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death's Refusal) is a one-act opera
by Viktor Ullmann
with a libretto
by Peter Kien
. Both Ullmann and Kien were inmates at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt
(Terezín), where they collaborated on the opera, around 1943. While the opera received a rehearsal at Theresienstadt in March 1944, it was never performed there, as the Nazi authorities saw in the depiction of Kaiser Overall a satire on Adolf Hitler
and banned the opera. Both the composer and the librettist died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Ullmann entrusted his manuscripts to a fellow-prisoner, Dr. Emil Utiz, former Professor of Philosophy at the German University in Prague
, who served as the camp's librarian. Utiz survived the camp and passed the manuscripts on to another survivor, Dr. Hans G. Adler, a friend of Ullmann's, some of whose poems Ullmann had set to music. The score was a working version with edits substitutions, and alternatives made in the course of rehearsals. Through informal personal connections, the score came to the attention of conductor Kerry Woodward. In the process of preparing a performing edition of the score, Woodward consulted Rosemary Brown
. Brown was a prominent spiritualist, known for mediumship
with dead composers and for transcribing musical works they dictated. She said she contacted Ullmann and communicated his instructions to Woodward, who incorporated them into his edition. At Brown's direction, Woodward altered the instrumentation of the second part of Death's aria near the end of the opera, substituting strings for harpsichord and adding trumpet and flute.
The Netherlands Opera
presented the world premiere of the opera with Woodward conducting his edition on December 16, 1975, at the Bellevue Centre, Amsterdam
. The production was repeated the following year in Brussels and Spoleto and recreated in April 1977 by the San Francisco Spring Opera Theater for the American premiere. The New Opera Theater presented the New York premiere at the Lepercq Space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
on May 19, 1977. All these performances were conducted by Woodward.
In 1981, Michael Graubert and Nicholas Till prepared an edition based on the manuscripts in Dr. Adler's possession and Woodward's edition, following many of Woodward's choices but preferring the 1943 text to the changes made on the basis of Brown's contribution. That provided the basis for the British premiere at the Studio Theatre of London's Morley College
on May 15, 1981 and for additional performances in May 1985 at the Imperial War Museum
.
A further reconstruction of the original score of the opera started in 1992 and 1993. Ingo Schultz was responsible for the musical research. This edition was staged by the Staatstheater Saarbrücken (Germany) and by ARBOS – Gesellschaft für Musik und Theater
(Austria). ARBOS presented the opera in Austria, the Czech Republic (including the first performance at the concentration camp of Theresienstadt in 1995), Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S. (including a performance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum). Other acclaimed performances have recently been given by City Opera of Vancouver
(2009), Long Beach Opera
(2009), Boston Lyric Opera
(2011), and Dioneo Opera, of London (2011).
The score comprises 20 short sections and last about fifty minutes. Parts of it are danced and there are long spoken sections. The 1943 orchestration is for chamber ensemble and includes such unusual instruments as banjo and harmonium. Alto saxophone and harpsichord also appear. Ullmann used the famous Lutheran chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
as a melodic motif as well as a theme from the Asrael symphony of Josef Suk
. Critics list among Ullmann's antecedents and influences "the radical young Hindemith" as well as Kurt Weill
and Arnold Schoenberg
. One critic has said Ullmann employed "an omnivorous musical language that draws on both classical and popular styles." The work ends with the chorale to the text "Come, Death, who art our worthy guest."
The character of Harlequin is sometimes called Pierrot, a different character from the commedia dell'arte
. The classic Pierrot
is moonstruck and a sleepwalker. In the opera, this character is an old man who twice recites poems Kien had written earlier. The first describes a cold and pitiless moon, establishing his identity as Pierrot. Later he sings a lullaby that uses a text Kien wrote as a paraphrase of another lullaby text, one familiar to all his contemporaries in the camp, that had been sung during the Thirty Years' War
. Ullmann set it to a catchy melody composed by Johann Friedrich Reichardt
in 1781.
Dr. Adler donated the original manuscript and two copies of the libretto in his possession to the Goetheanum
in Dornach
, the center for the anthroposophical movement with which Ullmann was associated.
described the opera as a story of "the abdication of death in the face of life's universal horrors." Harold Schonberg
thought "the play is stronger and more interesting than the music....In several spots the Ullmann work almost makes it as an opera." Most summaries report that Death insists that the Emperor be the first to die, but others report a variation in which "miraculously, the Emperor comes to understand his crimes" and "to allow Death to save millions from the agony of life-without-death, he offers himself as Death's first victim."
In an interview, conductor James Conlon
, a prominent reviver of works lost in the Holocaust, described the work as both a political satire and a parable of hope in which the isolated Emperor represents Hitler and the Drummer his confidante Eva Braun. The young lovers and Pierrot embody "the lost world of normal human emotion."
Andrew Porter has described the text of the opera: "The plot is no cut-and-dried allegory but an elusive death-welcoming parable about a mad, murderous ruler, possibly redeemed at last, who says farewell to the world in a mock-Faustian vision of a natural paradise no longer spoiled by men; had his dream come true all men would be dead. The Emperor of Atlantis, ruler over much of the world, proclaims universal war and declares that his old ally Death will lead the campaign. Death, offended by the Emperor's presumption, breaks his sabre; henceforth men will not die. Confusion results: a Soldier and a Girl-Soldier from opposite sides sing a love duet instead of fighting; the sick and suffering find no release. Death offers to return to men on one condition–that the Emperor be the first to die. He accepts and sings his farewell."
A voice heard over a loudspeaker sets the scene and presents the characters.
Scene 1
Harlequin describes his sorry life without laughter or love. Death joins him and togther they lament how slowly time passes in their grim environment.
Death belittles Harlequin's wish to die and explains how much more dire his own situation is than that of Harlequin. He lacks respect now that the "old-fashioned craft of dying" has been replaced by "motorized chariots of war" that work him to exhaustion with little satisfaction.
The Drummer announces the latest decree of the Emperor: Everyone will be armed and everyone will fight until there are no survivors. Death denounces the Emperor for usurping his role: "To take men's souls is my job, not his!" He declares that he is on strike and breaks his saber.
Scene 2
In his palace, the Emperor gives battle orders and monitors the progress of the universal war. He learns of a man who continues to live eighty minutes after being hanged and shot. The Loudspeaker reports that thousands of soldiers are "wrestling with life...doing their best to die" without success. Fearful that his power will not endure without death, the Emperor announces that he has decided to reward his subjects with the gift of eternal life. More honestly, he asks: "Death, where is thy sting? Where is thy victory, Hell?"
Scene 3
A Soldier and a Maiden (the Bobbed-Hair Girl) confront one other as enemies. Unable to kill each other, their thoughts turn to love. They dream of distant places where kind words exist alongside "meadows filled with color and fragrance." The Drummer attempts to lure them back to battle with the sensual attraction of the call. The Maiden responds: "Now death is dead and so we need to fight no more!" She and the Soldier sing: "Only love can unite us, unite us all together."
Scene 4
The Emperor continues to oversee his failing realm, where his subjects angrily protest their suspension in limbo between life and death. Harlequin appeals to him, reminding him of his innocent childhood. The Drummer urges the Emperor to maintain his resolve, but the Emperor's memories turn his thoughts from his plans for the annihilation of all. Instead he gazes into a covered mirror and asks: "What do men look like? Am I still a man or just the adding machine of God?"
He pulls away the mirror's cloth and faces the reflection of Death. "Who are you?" he demands. Death describes his role modestly, like that of a gardener "who roots up wilting weeds, life's worn-out fellows." He regrets the pain his strike is causing. When the Emperor asks him to resume his duties, Death proposes a resolution to the crisis: "I'm prepared to make peace, if you are prepared to make a sacrifice: will you be the first one to try out the new death?" After some resistance, the Emperor agrees and the suffering people find release in death once more. The Emperor sings his farewell. In a closing chorus, Death is praised and asked to "teach us to keep your holiest law: Thou shalt not use the name of Death in vain now and forever!"
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
by Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann was a Silesia-born Austrian, later Czech composer, conductor and pianist of Jewish origin.- Biography :...
with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Peter Kien
Peter Kien
Peter Kien was a Jewish artist and poet active at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.He died at the age of twenty-five.-His education:...
. Both Ullmann and Kien were inmates at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
(Terezín), where they collaborated on the opera, around 1943. While the opera received a rehearsal at Theresienstadt in March 1944, it was never performed there, as the Nazi authorities saw in the depiction of Kaiser Overall a satire on Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and banned the opera. Both the composer and the librettist died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Opera
The title is sometimes given as Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Der Tod dankt ab, that is, The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Abdicates. Rather than an opera, it is called a "legend in four scenes."Ullmann entrusted his manuscripts to a fellow-prisoner, Dr. Emil Utiz, former Professor of Philosophy at the German University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, who served as the camp's librarian. Utiz survived the camp and passed the manuscripts on to another survivor, Dr. Hans G. Adler, a friend of Ullmann's, some of whose poems Ullmann had set to music. The score was a working version with edits substitutions, and alternatives made in the course of rehearsals. Through informal personal connections, the score came to the attention of conductor Kerry Woodward. In the process of preparing a performing edition of the score, Woodward consulted Rosemary Brown
Rosemary Brown (spiritualist)
Rosemary Brown was a spirit medium who claimed that dead composers dictated new musical works to her. She created a small media sensation in the 1970s by presenting works dictated to her by Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg,...
. Brown was a prominent spiritualist, known for mediumship
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
with dead composers and for transcribing musical works they dictated. She said she contacted Ullmann and communicated his instructions to Woodward, who incorporated them into his edition. At Brown's direction, Woodward altered the instrumentation of the second part of Death's aria near the end of the opera, substituting strings for harpsichord and adding trumpet and flute.
The Netherlands Opera
De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera , in Amsterdam, is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986....
presented the world premiere of the opera with Woodward conducting his edition on December 16, 1975, at the Bellevue Centre, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. The production was repeated the following year in Brussels and Spoleto and recreated in April 1977 by the San Francisco Spring Opera Theater for the American premiere. The New Opera Theater presented the New York premiere at the Lepercq Space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
on May 19, 1977. All these performances were conducted by Woodward.
In 1981, Michael Graubert and Nicholas Till prepared an edition based on the manuscripts in Dr. Adler's possession and Woodward's edition, following many of Woodward's choices but preferring the 1943 text to the changes made on the basis of Brown's contribution. That provided the basis for the British premiere at the Studio Theatre of London's Morley College
Morley College
Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 10,806 adult students...
on May 15, 1981 and for additional performances in May 1985 at the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
.
A further reconstruction of the original score of the opera started in 1992 and 1993. Ingo Schultz was responsible for the musical research. This edition was staged by the Staatstheater Saarbrücken (Germany) and by ARBOS – Gesellschaft für Musik und Theater
ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre
ARBOS – Company for Music and Theatre in Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, is a society specialized in the realisation of new forms of theatre especially of projects for contemporary new music theatre, scenic concerts, theatre for young people, theatre concerts, deaf theatre, directed space,...
(Austria). ARBOS presented the opera in Austria, the Czech Republic (including the first performance at the concentration camp of Theresienstadt in 1995), Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the U.S. (including a performance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum). Other acclaimed performances have recently been given by City Opera of Vancouver
City Opera of Vancouver
City Opera of Vancouver is a professional chamber opera company founded in 2005. It was the lead company in efforts to restore Vancouver's Pantages Theatre, built by Alexander Pantages in 1907. The 650 seat building was considered to be the oldest remaining vaudeville theatre in Canada...
(2009), Long Beach Opera
Long Beach Opera
Long Beach Opera is a Southern California opera company serving the greater Los Angeles and Orange County metroplex. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest established professional opera company in the L.A. area...
(2009), Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976.Each season, BLO produces three mainstage productions at the Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre in Boston and a fully staged, one-hour English language version of a popular opera for school...
(2011), and Dioneo Opera, of London (2011).
The score comprises 20 short sections and last about fifty minutes. Parts of it are danced and there are long spoken sections. The 1943 orchestration is for chamber ensemble and includes such unusual instruments as banjo and harmonium. Alto saxophone and harpsichord also appear. Ullmann used the famous Lutheran chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is the best known of Martin Luther's hymns. Luther wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages...
as a melodic motif as well as a theme from the Asrael symphony of Josef Suk
Josef Suk (composer)
Josef Suk was a Czech composer and violinist.- Life :Suk was born in Křečovice. He studied at Prague Conservatory from 1885 to 1892, where he was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák and Antonín Bennewitz. In 1898, he married Dvořák's eldest daughter, Otilie Dvořáková , affectionately known as Otilka...
. Critics list among Ullmann's antecedents and influences "the radical young Hindemith" as well as Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
. One critic has said Ullmann employed "an omnivorous musical language that draws on both classical and popular styles." The work ends with the chorale to the text "Come, Death, who art our worthy guest."
The character of Harlequin is sometimes called Pierrot, a different character from the commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
. The classic Pierrot
Pierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...
is moonstruck and a sleepwalker. In the opera, this character is an old man who twice recites poems Kien had written earlier. The first describes a cold and pitiless moon, establishing his identity as Pierrot. Later he sings a lullaby that uses a text Kien wrote as a paraphrase of another lullaby text, one familiar to all his contemporaries in the camp, that had been sung during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
. Ullmann set it to a catchy melody composed by Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Johann Friedrich Reichardt was a German composer, writer and music critic.-Early life:Reichardt was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, to lutenist and Stadtmusiker Johann Reichardt . Johann Friedrich began his musical training, in violin, keyboard, and lute, as a child...
in 1781.
Dr. Adler donated the original manuscript and two copies of the libretto in his possession to the Goetheanum
Goetheanum
The Goetheanum, located in Dornach , Switzerland, is the world center for the anthroposophical movement. Named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the center includes two performance halls , gallery and lecture spaces, a library, a bookstore, and administrative spaces for the Anthroposophical...
in Dornach
Dornach
Dornach is a municipality in the district of Dorneck in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.-History:Dornach is first mentioned in 1223 as de Tornacho. In 1307 it was mentioned as zu Dornach...
, the center for the anthroposophical movement with which Ullmann was associated.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Theresienstadt rehearsals |
Premiere cast December 16, 1975 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaiser Overall (Emperor Overall) | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Walter Windholz | Meinard Kraak |
| Der Lautsprecher (Announcer) | bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... |
Bedrich Borges | Lodewijk Meeuwsen |
| Ein Soldat (A soldier) | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
David Grünfeld | Rudolf Ruivenkamp |
| Harlekin (Pierrot) | tenor | David Grünfeld | Adriaan van Limpt |
| Bubikopf (A maiden) | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Marion Podolier | Roberta Alexander |
| Der Tod (Death) | bass-baritone | Karel Berman | Tom Haenen |
| Der Trommler (Drummer girl) | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Hilde Aronson‐Lindt | Inge Frölich |
Libretto
Descriptions and summaries of Kien's libretto vary widely. John RockwellJohn Rockwell
John Rockwell is a music critic, editor, and dance critic. He studied at Phillips Academy, Harvard, the University of Munich, and the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in German culture....
described the opera as a story of "the abdication of death in the face of life's universal horrors." Harold Schonberg
Harold C. Schonberg
Harold Charles Schonberg was an American music critic and journalist, most notably for The New York Times. He was the first music critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism...
thought "the play is stronger and more interesting than the music....In several spots the Ullmann work almost makes it as an opera." Most summaries report that Death insists that the Emperor be the first to die, but others report a variation in which "miraculously, the Emperor comes to understand his crimes" and "to allow Death to save millions from the agony of life-without-death, he offers himself as Death's first victim."
In an interview, conductor James Conlon
James Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
, a prominent reviver of works lost in the Holocaust, described the work as both a political satire and a parable of hope in which the isolated Emperor represents Hitler and the Drummer his confidante Eva Braun. The young lovers and Pierrot embody "the lost world of normal human emotion."
Andrew Porter has described the text of the opera: "The plot is no cut-and-dried allegory but an elusive death-welcoming parable about a mad, murderous ruler, possibly redeemed at last, who says farewell to the world in a mock-Faustian vision of a natural paradise no longer spoiled by men; had his dream come true all men would be dead. The Emperor of Atlantis, ruler over much of the world, proclaims universal war and declares that his old ally Death will lead the campaign. Death, offended by the Emperor's presumption, breaks his sabre; henceforth men will not die. Confusion results: a Soldier and a Girl-Soldier from opposite sides sing a love duet instead of fighting; the sick and suffering find no release. Death offers to return to men on one condition–that the Emperor be the first to die. He accepts and sings his farewell."
Synopsis
PrologueA voice heard over a loudspeaker sets the scene and presents the characters.
Scene 1
Harlequin describes his sorry life without laughter or love. Death joins him and togther they lament how slowly time passes in their grim environment.
Death belittles Harlequin's wish to die and explains how much more dire his own situation is than that of Harlequin. He lacks respect now that the "old-fashioned craft of dying" has been replaced by "motorized chariots of war" that work him to exhaustion with little satisfaction.
The Drummer announces the latest decree of the Emperor: Everyone will be armed and everyone will fight until there are no survivors. Death denounces the Emperor for usurping his role: "To take men's souls is my job, not his!" He declares that he is on strike and breaks his saber.
Scene 2
In his palace, the Emperor gives battle orders and monitors the progress of the universal war. He learns of a man who continues to live eighty minutes after being hanged and shot. The Loudspeaker reports that thousands of soldiers are "wrestling with life...doing their best to die" without success. Fearful that his power will not endure without death, the Emperor announces that he has decided to reward his subjects with the gift of eternal life. More honestly, he asks: "Death, where is thy sting? Where is thy victory, Hell?"
Scene 3
A Soldier and a Maiden (the Bobbed-Hair Girl) confront one other as enemies. Unable to kill each other, their thoughts turn to love. They dream of distant places where kind words exist alongside "meadows filled with color and fragrance." The Drummer attempts to lure them back to battle with the sensual attraction of the call. The Maiden responds: "Now death is dead and so we need to fight no more!" She and the Soldier sing: "Only love can unite us, unite us all together."
Scene 4
The Emperor continues to oversee his failing realm, where his subjects angrily protest their suspension in limbo between life and death. Harlequin appeals to him, reminding him of his innocent childhood. The Drummer urges the Emperor to maintain his resolve, but the Emperor's memories turn his thoughts from his plans for the annihilation of all. Instead he gazes into a covered mirror and asks: "What do men look like? Am I still a man or just the adding machine of God?"
He pulls away the mirror's cloth and faces the reflection of Death. "Who are you?" he demands. Death describes his role modestly, like that of a gardener "who roots up wilting weeds, life's worn-out fellows." He regrets the pain his strike is causing. When the Emperor asks him to resume his duties, Death proposes a resolution to the crisis: "I'm prepared to make peace, if you are prepared to make a sacrifice: will you be the first one to try out the new death?" After some resistance, the Emperor agrees and the suffering people find release in death once more. The Emperor sings his farewell. In a closing chorus, Death is praised and asked to "teach us to keep your holiest law: Thou shalt not use the name of Death in vain now and forever!"
Recordings
- Decca 440 854-2: Iris Vermillion, Michael Kraus, Herbert Lippert, Christiane OelzeChristiane OelzeChristiane Oelze is a German soprano. From 2003 to 2008 she taught singing at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.- External links :* *...
, Walter Berry, Martin Petzold, Franz MazuraFranz MazuraFranz Mazura is an Austrian bass-baritone opera singer and actor. He was made a Kammersänger in 1980 and an Honorary Member of the National Theater of Mannheim in 1990...
; Leipzig Gewandhaus OrchestraLeipzig Gewandhaus OrchestraThe Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...
; Lothar ZagrosekLothar ZagrosekLothar Zagrosek is a German conductor. As a youth, he sang in the Regensburg Cathedral choir, including performances as the First Boy in The Magic Flute at the 1954 Salzburg Festival...
, conductor This recording uses expanded orchestration and replaces the harpsichord with piano. - Studio Matouš 0022-2 631: Stephen Swanson, Rupert Bergmann, Johannes Strasser, Stefani Kahl, Krassimir Tassev, Ingrid Niedermayr; Arbos Gesellschaft für Musik und Theater/Ensemble Kreativ; Alexander Drčar, conductor. This recording uses the original instrumentation.
Films
- WDR/BBC/Clasart - Opera film (written in Theresienstadt in 1943 on back of Nazi deportation forms to Auschwitz), directed by John Goldschmidt, starring Teresa StratasTeresa StratasTeresa Stratas, OC , is a retired Canadian operatic soprano. She is especially well-known for her award-winning recording of Alban Berg's Lulu.-Early life and career:...
and Siegmund NimsgernSiegmund NimsgernSiegmund Nimsgern is a German bass-baritone, born in Sankt Wendel, Saarland, Germany.After leaving school in 1960 he studied singing and musical education at the Hochschule für Musik Saar with Sibylle Fuchs, Jakob Stämpfli and Paul Lohmann.He made his debut at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in...
, performed by the London SinfoniettaLondon SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
, conducted by Kerry Woodward, winner of Prix Italia - Music 1978, 57 minutes, plus short introductory documentary on origin of the opera based on an interview with H.G. Adler, illustrated with drawings by concentration camp inmates. - Viktor Ullmann - Way to the Front 1917, documentary film. Book and director: Herbert GantschacherHerbert GantschacherHerbert Gantschacher is an Austrian director and producer and writer.- Education :...
; editor: Erich Heyduck ARBOS-DVD Vienna-Salzburg-Klagenfurt-Arnoldstein 2007 - The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death, documentary music theatre about the opera of Viktor Ullmann. Book and director: Herbert Gantschacher; sound-engineering: Roumen Dimitrov; editor: Erich Heyduck ARBOS-DVD Vienna-Salzburg-Klagenfurt 2009
Sources
- Amanda Holden, Nicholas Kenyon, Stephen Walsh, and Colin Davis , eds., Viking Opera Guide (Viking, 1993)