Vienna. Viktor Ullmann: Emperor of Atlantis

Thirty years since the last performance, Viktor Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis returned onto the stage of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. The new production of this one-act opera, composed in 1943 in the Theresienstadt ghetto, was premiered on 11 January on the Kammeroper scene. The director is Rainer Vierlinger, the theatre’s long-standing collaborator for whom … Read more

Madrid: The Emperor of Atlantis

For the first time in its history, Teatro Real in Madrid staged a new production of Viktor Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis (1943). Dramaturgically the premiere was a part of the theatre’s special programme series of works composed mostly by Jewish authors in the 1930s and 1940s. Apart from the main attraction, Arnold Schönberg’s Moses and Aaron, the series also included … Read more

The Cunning Little Vixen’s French tour

On 29 and 30 April two performances of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen at Les Quinconces theatre in Le mons, France, closed the production’s tour organized by the Paris-based opera house Arcal. The company’s aim being to bring high-quality opera performances to regions where these are otherwise not particularly easy to find, the ensemble’s mission consists of travelling through the … Read more

Madrid. Hans Krása: Brundibár

A new production of Hans Krása’s children’s opera Brundibár received its premiere on 9 April at the Teatro Royal in Madrid. Its being part of this opera season’s programme has to do with the overall dramaturgy which, as the theatre’s artistic director Joan Matabosch puts it, is focused on works revolving around the topic of the „Central European anti-Semitism … Read more

Lyon. Hans Krása: Brundibár

A new production of the opera Brundibár by Hans Krása was presented during this year’s mid-season festival held by Opéra de Lyon. Composed in 1938 yet premiered and more than fifty times reprised not until five years afterwards at the Theresienstadt concentration camp by the deported Jewish children, this over 30-minute-long children’s opera is, according to the … Read more

Dresden. Viktor Ullmann: The Emperor of Atlantis

Semperoper Dresden created a new production of a one-act chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis), which had been composed by Viktor Ullmann between 1944-45 in the concentration camp Theresienstadt, less than 100 km away from Dresden. The premiere took place on 19 February in a less formal environment of the so-called Semper 2, a chamber … Read more