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Organization

Bregenzer Festspiele

Singer

Soprano

Ilse Eerens

Marianne

Baritone

Daniel Schmutzhard

Alfred

Tenor

Jörg Schneider

Oskar

Mezzo-soprano

Angelika Kirchschlager

Valerie

Bass

Albert Pesendorfer

Zauberkönig

Anke Vondung

Die Mutter

Anja Silja

Grossmutter

Michael Laurenz

Erich

Markus Butter

Rittmeister

Beichtvater

David Pittman-Jennings

Mister

Alexander Kaimbacher

Der Hierlinger Ferdinand

Robert Maszl

Havlitschek

Susanne Grosssteiner

Emma

Conductor

Heinz Karl Gruber

Stage director

Michael Sturminger

Set designer

Renate Martin

Andreas Donhauser

Lighting designer

Olaf Winter

Chorus master

Colin Mason

Libretto

Costume designer

MusikTheater an der Wien

Orchestra

Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Others

Vokalensemble NOVA

Jazzorchester Vorarlberg

German

Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

Grosser Pausenraum

Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald Gruber

Approved

In 1931, Ödön von Horváth's bitterly angry and clairvoyant “Volksstück” was premiered in Berlin. In it he provides a precise satirical inventory of the mentality of the petty bourgeoisie who, under the guise of self-righteous “Viennese cosiness”, preserve their prejudices and narrow moral attitudes. Such types did not only exist in Vienna in the early 1930s, stupid philistines can always be found everywhere. Now, on behalf of the Bregenz Festival and the Theater an der Wien, the Viennese composer, conductor, chansonnier and actor HK Gruber, together with the director and librettist Michael Sturminger, set about transforming Horváth's piece into an opera.

The old magician is the owner of a doll clinic and has a daughter, Marianne. She is supposed to marry Oskar, the owner of the neighboring butcher's shop. She is not comfortable with it, and on the day of the engagement she runs away with Hallodri Alfred. She has a child, but the love between her and Alfred breaks quickly due to financial problems. When her father discovers her as a nude dancer in a nightclub where she has to earn money, he indignantly disgusts the failing woman. Alfred's family doesn't like the destitute Marianne either, but because of the child you can't get rid of them. The grandmother solves the problem: she exposes the cumbersome child to the cold and it dies of pneumonia. The situation can now come back to normal, Oskar forgives Marianne and wants to marry her after all, Alfred turns back to his old lover, the wealthy tobacconist Valerie. In addition to his main characters, Horváth employs a colorful staff that embodies a cross-section of the petty bourgeoisie from the interwar period: the Strizzi Hirlinger, the Rittmeister who still lived in the Imperial and Royal era and the German law student Erich, whose views heralded Hitler's Greater German madness.

English

Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald by Gruber, From (2015/2015), Directed by Michael Sturminger,, Conductor Heinz Karl Gruber, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

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