Karan Armstrong

Falstaff Gabriel Bacquier · Karan Armstrong Richard Stilwell · Max-René Cosotti · John Lanigan Wiener Philharmoniker Georg Solti Directed by Götz Friedrich

In 1920s Germany, Erich Korngold's work was considered “degenerate” and banned. Eventually, in 1934, he left for Hollywood. There, he made a name for himself as a film composer and only rarely wrote great works for the stage. Many of his quite successful operas, composed between 1913 and 1927, stopped being performed after World War II. Among these was his perhaps most significant work, Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”), which was performed again for the first time after a long hiatus in 1955 in Munich. Further productions followed. Nevertheless, Götz Friedrich's version of 1983 for the Deutsche Oper Berlin was only the fifth new production of the opera after 1945.

The nearest Wagner ever got to religion was worshiping himself. Using opulent music he delivers his audience to an easy, pseudo-mystical experience. In this, one of his earlier operas, he is already showing signs of the mastery of the superlative that later would blossom fully together with his egomania.