Andreas Kowalewitz / Rezensionen

With colossal force and unscrupulous abundance of power, a final battle for the world is staged in Münster's Great House. Adam and Eve are in danger. […] Such precisely staged mass scenes are the strength of the premiere “Last Paradise Lost”. Günter Werno (music), Andy Kuntz, Johannes Reitmeier (both libretto, sequence of scenes) and Stephan Lill are responsible for the rock opera. [...] Randy Diamond shines as Lucifer in Münster with great stage presence. […] Michael D. Zimmermann has given the fantasy fashion, which is reminiscent of comic and film role models, a stylish line that also allows for ironic moments. Opponent is Andy Kuntz as Archangel, who delivers emphatic vocal duels with Diamond. A high-pitched guitar solo announces him as God's helper. The band Vanden Plas accentuates the voluminous sound from the orchestra pit on a transparently clad play island. With Münster's symphonies, conductor Andreas Kowalewitz repeatedly sets a hymn-like tone that makes it clear that nothing less than life itself is at stake. [...] Director Johannes Reitmeier relies on visually sophisticated theatrical images. Adam and Eve crouch like prototypes or laboratory mice in veiled tubes that reach up to the stage sky. […] It is these speaking images that repeatedly draw the audience to applause and a few bravos. […] For the storming of paradise, Belial disguises himself as an angel with a glittering cloak. Edward Roland Serban puts on the nasty idea generator from Lucifer's attack troop as a whimsical sidestep. On the other hand, Milica Jovanovic spreads as Beelzebub. Her leather bustier and shimmering black horns play with sadomasochistic eroticism. Sometimes it crackles in Münster. The opera choir completes the scenes with a great sense of space. This time, tuned in by Anton Tremmel, a lot is done choreographically. [...] At the end, video sequences of the war, a mushroom cloud and the collapsing World Trade Center (9.11.) can be seen. Far from paradise lost, "Last Paradise Lost" shows us that we still have a chance to save our paradise: the earth. God gave Adam and Eve the power to choose what to do. What knowledge are we based on? In Münster everyone seems to have understood. Thunderous applause and standing ovations.