Viktor Ullmann, Der Kaiser von Atlantis (1943)

Here's another opera written in a concentration camp before Ullmann's murder. Those nazis, man. Imagine being so fucking stupid that you think you can simultaneously glorify German culture and murder your artists. Hoo boy. This one was not permitted to be performed at Theresienstadt, for reasons that may become obvious. How did the music he wrote there survive at all? Because he entrusted the manuscripts to another prisoner, who survived and passed them on to a friend of Ullmann's (this one was first performed in 1975). These things could very easily have turned out differently, and his work would be lost forever. But when we compare what Ullmann achieved with what those worthless piece-of-shit nazis did...it's not a hard contest.

Anyway, this is a kind of abstract story. Death is feeling unhappy because not death is becoming more automated, more impersonal, industrialized (remind you of anything?). The Emperor of Atlantis declares WAR, which will go on 'til everyone is dead. War with whom? We may never know, but this is the last straw for Death, who decides he's going to go on strike. The war proceeds, but the Emperor is annoyed to realize that nobody's dying: a man was hanged and shot, and he's expected to die soon, but eighty-two minutes later, he's not dead. Any moment now! The Emperor tries to cover for this by declaring that he's granted all his subjects eternal life, but he's privately baffled. There are also male and female soldiers who confront each other but seeing that death is cancelled, decide to be in love instead. Death explains the situation to the Emperor, who gives up and allows himself to die in exchange for Death getting back in business. Don't fuck around with Death. That's the moral.

It's short, only fufty minutes, but I did like it better than Der zerbrochene Krug, maybe just because the story's more interesting to me. Also, this production from Wolftrap Opera in Virginia is very creative and fun to look at. Watch it today, and then punch a nazi while you're at it. Brass knuckles recommended.