Dramaturge

In 1930 Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht created a new type of grand opera, radical in both, entertainment as well as criticism. With the wit of an epic theater and the musical esprit of old and worn bar songs mixed with music of the avant-garde, Weill and Brecht built the fable of a city in paradise that finally perishes from its own utopias: in the end there is only one mortal sin left – the sin of insolvency. Together with a young ensemble, director Ulrike Schwab explores the one question: Who would still dare to dream of a better future today.

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Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

The Staatstheater Stuttgart

Who has not heard of the robber Hotzenplotz? He first steals grandmother's new coffee grinder which plays such beautiful music whilst grinding. Then Hotzenplotz lures Seppel and Kasperl into a trap taking them both prisoners. What’s more, the villain then sells poor Kasperl to the great and evil magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann – or is it Seppel he is selling? It does not matter. In any case, it takes a fair amount of courage, magic and the combined help by the audience to rescue the two friends. Composer Sebastian Schwab has newly composed Otfried Preußler's enchanting story as a Singspiel for the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart in time for Preußler’s 100th birthday - with coffee mill and, of course, 7 knives.

The Robber Hotzen­plotz

„As a stranger I arrived here“. Yes. But who is „I“? A lonesome wanderer about 200 years ago, who makes his way through a winter landscape after the dashing of his hopes in unrequited love? Franz Schubert’s „Winterreise“ is based upon poems by Wilhelm Müller and was composed in 1827 in a time following the years after Austrian State Chancellor Metternich’s conservative restorationist policy in 1815. A sense of collective resignation is very subtly expressed: as a private romantic drama. With his “compositorial interpretation” in 1993, Hans Zender attempted to make the force of the original composition perceptible again to a contemporary audience. In 2020, the Dutch video artist Aernout Mik takes it up by adding a further dimension. In his production, he focuses on the dissolution of the individual between the virtual and the real world which for Mik represents modern man’s “Winterreise”.

Dramaturge

Julia Schmitt

Events

Past events

Apr 16 - May 9, 2025

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny · Staatsoper Stuttgart

Feb 16 - Jun 20, 2025

The Robber Hotzenplotz · Staatsoper Stuttgart

About

Julia Schmitt hasn't added a bio

Dramaturge

Julia Schmitt

Events

Past events

Apr 16 - May 9, 2025

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny · Staatsoper Stuttgart

Feb 16 - Jun 20, 2025

The Robber Hotzen­plotz · Staatsoper Stuttgart

About

Julia Schmitt hasn't added a bio

The Robber Hotzenplotz · Staatsoper Stuttgart