(The Dictator) A tragic opera in one act by Ernst Krenek (1926)
Premiere on November 7, 2018 with additional performances through December 5, 2018
A few years before the Nazis seized power in Germany, Krenek wrote a fantasy about a dictator whom no one could really stand up to. The dictator, along with his wife, Charlotte, is on a relaxing vacation while Maria, the wife of a disabled officer, plans the assassination of the warring dictator which ultimately fails. Krenek wrote this “bloody story of murder from the private life of a contemporary dictator” in order to warn his contemporaries of the growing fascism in Europe and its populist effects.
92 years later, the young director Ariane Kareev questions the contemporary contexts of manipulation and seduction in politics and in private life in her thesis production. Demonstrations of power, freedom, desire, despair, revenge and the art of seduction are placed in opposition. She uses Krenek’s work as an historical counterfoil and, in collaboration with the composer Jörg Gollasch (who has created compositions for the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Hamburg Schauspielhaus and many other renowned theaters) has created a chamber version of the work, including new interludes, for the Neuköllner Oper.
Musical Arrangement/Composition: Jörg Gollasch | Script/Direction: Ariane Kareev | Dramaturgy/Script: Justus Rothlaender | Music Director/Piano: Wallewein Witten | Stage Design: Lina O. Nguyen | Costume Design: Julia Denzel
Featuring: Sotiris Charalampous/Alexander Fedorov, Lawrence Halksworth, Eva Maria Nikolaus and Isabel Reinhard, also Maria Franz und Jan-Einar Groh