Name: Dr a n g i n die Fern n e
Start: 2025-11-17T19:30:00
Location: Volksoper Wien

Annelie Sophie Müller

Alejandro Picó-Leonís

Volksoper Wien

The young successor to the throne Aljoscha is unhappy and tormented by loneliness. He avoids contact with women, yet he longs for another person. Eventually, he meets a young man – who, in Lehár’s version, is a girl in disguise. However, for Dutch director and artist Steef de Jong, the situation is more complex … He relocates the story, originally set in Russia, to a more universal fairytale world, focusing entirely on the slowly blossoming love story. He uses beautiful drawings and animations, filmed live and projected, creating a work of art that blends operetta and animated film, capturing the melancholy of Lehár’s music while also adding humor and lightness.

Der Zarewitsch

Emperor Overall is the tyrannical ruler of Atlantis. When he finally declares a war between everyone and everyone else, Death decides to go on strike. In an act of populist demagogy, the Emperor claims the credit for delivering immortality. But with no one dying, the country descends into chaos. The Emperor is forced to accept that his power has been broken.   

Confronted directly with persecution and extermination by the Nazis, Viktor Ullmann composed Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis) in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943/44: a harrowing allegory critiquing inhuman warmongering and totalitarian power structures. In October 1944 – along with his co-librettist Peter Kien – he was deported on the so-called “Künstlertransport” to Auschwitz, where Ullmann was gassed to death and Kien died of an infection. Shifting between a contemporary opera, a mystery play and a dance of death, Der Kaiser von Atlantis presents a unique theatrical sound world. 

KaiserRequiem

On the occasion of the upcoming 197th anniversary of the death of Franz Schubert – perhaps the most famous son of today’s Vienna district Alsergrund – Annelie Sophie Müller presents a song recital exploring youthful longing for life and love. Complementing Schubert, the program also features works by two other composers who spent formative years in Vienna: Gustav Mahler and Franz Liszt. Together with pianist Alejandro Picó-Leonís, mezzo-soprano Annelie Sophie Müller poses profound questions about the meaning of life, the nature of love, and the inevitability of parting. Rustic dances, beloved melodies, and rapturous love songs promise an evening of pure art song delight!