Name: Der Kaiser von Atlantis & Music for the End of Time
Start: 2022-01-23T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2022-01-23T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Barbican Centre

Organization

Conductor

Josep Pons

Baritone

Thomas Johannes Mayer

Emperor Overall

Bass-baritone

Derrick Ballard

The Loudspeaker

Tenor

Oliver Johnston

A soldier

Benjamin Hulett

Harlequin

Soprano

Soraya Mafi

A maiden

Henry Waddington

The Death

Mezzo-soprano

Hanna Hipp

Drummer Girl

Stage director

Kenneth Richardson

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Orchestra

Others

Guildhall School Musicians

Der Kaiser von Atlantis & Music for the End of Time

London

United Kingdom

Barbican Centre

Barbican Concert Hall

Der Kaiser von Atlantis & Music for the End of Time: Der Kaiser von Atlantis Ullmann (+1 More)

Public

Private

Concert

The Emperor of Atlantis

Quartet for the End of Time

Approved

Extraordinary music written amid the hopelessness of prison and concentration camps that dared to seek the truth – and to hope for better times.

In 1943, Theresienstadt inmates Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien started to collaborate on a stage work. It would use whatever singers, musicians and instruments were at hand, drawing on styles ranging from jazz and cabaret to Lutheran chorales and grand Czech symphonies. The result was Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a political satire in which Death goes on strike, thwarting the emperor’s plans to maintain his power through endless war. Der Kaiser was quickly quashed when the Nazis saw their own leader in its critique of a petty despot.

Two years earlier, French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote Quartet for the End of Time in a labour camp. It has been described as ‘an intimate expression of awe, a prophetic collective scream and a delirious dance all at once.’ Its closing eulogy expresses the ascent of humankind to paradise.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Ensemble