The Miracle Theater by Henze, Ullmann, Od (2022/2022), Režírované Thomas Münstermann, Dirigent Robin Davis, Stadttheater, Pforzheim, Germany

The world is going crazy The emperor of Atlantis or the denial of death The megalomaniac and tyrannical Kaiser Overall plunges the whole world into a senseless war. But when death denies him allegiance, the soldiers go into the field and fight with their lives, since no one can die anymore. The country is sinking into chaos. Mad, the emperor begs death to return to office. Does that agree? The Schoenberg student Viktor Ullmann wrote the biting satire on the political situation in the Third Reich together with Peter Kien in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Ullmann's work is characterized by a striking variety of styles: In addition to lyrical arias, there are jazz sounds and dance music from the 1920s and 30s as well as folk tunes, chorals and atonal twelve-tone technique. The miracle theater Theater director Chanfalla announces a wonderful spectacle, which can only be seen by those who lead a Christian way of life or were conceived in a legitimate marriage. Chanfalla explains what is being played and the audience goes wild - but nothing can actually be seen on stage. When a soldier notices this, a hunt for the supposedly bad Christian begins. According to Miguel de Cervantes, Hans Werner Henze impressively transforms the wit of his material into music by contrasting the lightness of dance with intoxicating tone paintings. Speech and music theater form a unit that should point the way for the development of opera in the second half of the 20th century.