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An Opera Unheard: DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS in Theresienstadt

Mon, December 17, 3:00 to 4:30pm, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Cityview 1 Ballroom

Abstract

Composed in Theresienstadt, Viktor Ullmann’s one-act opera DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS (THE EMPEROR OF ATLANTIS) premiered in Amsterdam under the direction of Kerry Woodward in 1975. Although the opera was rehearsed in Theresienstadt, the work was never performed. Scholars have speculated that mass transports to Auschwitz prevented the opera’s premiere, but additional narratives emerged following the 1975 performance. Program notes and published reviews of recent performances rely upon claims that the opera was banned in Theresienstadt due to its nationalistic themes and use of allegory. However, two contrasting versions of the opera’s libretto, written by Peter Kien, and alterations in Ullmann’s surviving score complicate these claims. The work’s failed premiere in the camp remains the subject of considerable debate, and multiple narratives surrounding the opera’s premiere persist today. This paper explores how unperformed artworks in particular fuel redemptive narratives, and intervenes with a thoroughly researched account of the opera’s composition and rehearsal process, and traces the development of competing narratives.

Ullmann composed DER KAISER VON ATLANTIS in 1943–1944 during his internment in Theresienstadt. Increasingly performed as part of memorials and commemorations, the opera is routinely associated with notions of spiritual resistance. Kerry Woodward’s program notes from the opera’s 1975 premiere state that the Theresienstadt performance was halted due to mass transports to Auschwitz in September and October 1944. Ullmann and Peter Kien were placed on transports along with many of the performers, and plans to premiere the work were abandoned. However, Woodward’s contention is increasingly disregarded, and the two most common narratives that have emerged employ tropes of resistance and defiance. Some scholars claim that Ullmann’s composition served as a hostile, openly discernible allegory of Hitler that the Nazis subsequently banned. By contrast, Karel Berman, the sole survivor who was slated to perform in the opera, claims that Jewish camp authorities found the allegory problematic and refused to sanction performances. However, both claims are problematized by the existence of two versions of the libretto, the second of which minimizes allusions to fascism. Through an analysis of competing narratives and extant documents related to the opera’s rehearsals in Theresienstadt, the paper shows how current performances perpetuate “consoling stories” that are at odds with the historical record.

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