Opera

Die tote Stadt

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

A sensational success of 20th-Century-Opera.
Die tote Stadt made Erich Wolfgang Korngold the most frequently performed opera composer in Germany in the 1920s, alongside Richard Strauss. With Klaus Florian Vogt and Vida Miknevičiūtė in the leading roles, director David Bösch impressively tells the story of a journey into the self, in which dream and reality become blurred.

Korngold's music brings the psychological drama to full fruition; his compositional style is unmistakably narrative and emotional.

Lonely and withdrawn, the grieving widower Paul lives in the city of Bruges after the death of his wife Marie and practises a strange death cult around the deceased. But his encounter with the dancer Marietta turns his life upside down: the young woman becomes a mirror of his longings, onto which he projects the "return" of his deceased wife. It is only when Paul wakes up from a nightmare in which he commits a bloody deed, that he arrives in reality. Can Paul find his way to a life free of psychological burdens?

Opera in three acts
Loosely adapted from Georges Rodenbachs novel Bruges-la-Morte, Libretto by Paul Schott

Performed in German with German and English supertitles

Premiere
16. December 2017,

No further performances in the current season.

Premiere cast

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
 Kinderchor der Semperoper Dresden
 Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Generously supported by the Semperoper Foundation


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Die tote Stadt

In the city of Bruges, the grieving widower Paul, caught up in a strange death cult, is living alone and in seclusion after losing his wife Marie. Then an encounter with the dancer Marietta turns his life upside down: The young woman becomes a mirror upon which he projects a longing for the return of his dead wife. Paul only comes to his senses after awakening from a nightmare in which he commits a murderous act. Can he find a way back to normality, free of his psychological burden? Following the simultaneous premiere of Die Tote Stadt in Hamburg and Cologne in 1920, the wunderkind Erich Wolfgang Korngold became, after Richard Strauss, Germany’s most frequently performed opera composer of the following decade. Emotionally taut and with powerful imagery, director David Bösch tells of Paul’s journey into himself, where dreams and reality gradually merge into one.
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