OPERA IN TWO ACTS
after the tragedies Erdgeist and Pandora's box by Frank Wedekind
arranged by the composer
Alban Berg’s unfinished opera after Frank
Wedekind’s tragedies Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box, 1902) was first performed
in 1937. Introduced as “the true animal, the wild, beautiful animal”, Lulu
accompanies the rise and fall of her lovers and husbands until she is murdered
by Jack the Ripper. Portrayed as both a femme fatale and a femme fragile, the
titular heroine appears as the portrait that is painted of her by others. Is
Lulu the victim of a juggernaut of masculine oppression and bourgeois
hypocrisy, or is she herself a monstrous juggernaut of seduction? Following her
invitation to stage Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot
lunaire at the Wiener Festwochen in 2021, the choreographer and dancer
Marlene Monteiro Freitas, born in Cape Verde, finds an inspirational accomplice
in Lulu. Together with the French conductor Maxime Pascal, a passionate
advocate of the modern, she has chosen an open-ended form for the unfinished
third act which is supplemented by parts of Berg’s Lulu suite.
A joint project by Wiener Festwochen and Theater an der Wien
In German with surtitles
Introduction to the work 30 minutes before the performance
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