Schwanda, der Dudelsack-pfeifer - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Libretto by Miloš Kares
German by Max Brod

Recommended for ages 16+

Oh, how beautiful is married life! However, the cozy togetherness of the bagpiper Schwanda and his wife Dorota has it all - all the more so when the robber captain Babinsky appears on the scene to seduce the husband to all sorts of adventures and the wife to cheat. The encounter with an ice queen in love, an execution prevented at the last moment and even the descent into hell promise enigmatic fun. Jaromír Weinberger's opera Švanda dudák had its premiere in Prague in 1927 and found its way into the German-speaking world in a translation by Max Brod. However, the National Socialists put an abrupt end to the success of the work and Weinberger's career in general. In recent years, at least his successful opera Schwanda, der Bagpiper, in which Bohemian folklore is combined with late romanticism, has conquered the stage again. Tobias Kratzer is now returning to Vienna with this work and not only traces the colorful surface, but also the deep psychological abysses of this fairytale world for adults.

In German with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before the start of the performance

musical direction
Petr Popelka

staging
Tobias Kratzer

stage and costume
Rainer Sellmaier

Light
Michael Bauer

Video
Jonas Dahl
Manuel Braun

Schwanda
André Schuen

Dorota
Vera Lotte Boecker

Babinsky
Pavol Brezlik

queen
Ester Pavlu

Devil
Kresimir Stražanac

magician
Sorin Coliban

Judge / The Captain of Hell / 1st Landsknecht
Miloš Bulajic

2. Landsknecht
Henry Neil

Executioner / The Devil's Famulus
Iurie Ciobanu

Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
(Head: Erwin Ortner)

Subject to change.