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Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis in New Eulenburg Urtext Edition

Jun. 04, 2015

Viktor Ullmann's <em>The Emperor of Atlantis</em> in New Eulenburg Urtext Edition

Schott Music is proud to announce the publication of a new Edition Eulenburg Urtext study score and performance materials for Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal. Widely considered a milestone of intellectual resistance, The Emperor of Atlantis has received a remarkable number of major productions since its premiere in 1975 and particularly following the creation of the first performable edition in 1993.

In September 1942 Viktor Ullmann was interned in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt where he composed The Emperor of Atlantis to a libretto by Peter Kien, a fellow prisoner, in 1943. This opera was rehearsed by a chamber ensemble founded with the permission of the SS, but its first performance was prohibited after the final rehearsal. The autograph of the score only survived because shortly before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, Ullmann handed it, together with the libretto, to a friend who was able to save both manuscripts at the end of the war.

The opera is a parable of a tired Death who puts in his place a misanthropic tyrant, whose senseless wars claim many lives – Death finally destroys him by going on strike. The libretto is a vigorous take on the Third Reich and more particularly the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. The music, with its numerous references to jazz and then current light music, sometimes by direct quotation, puts the composer in the role of political commentator.

The newly revised edition, edited by Henning Brauel and with a preface and critical notes by Andreas Krause, takes as its primary sources the original manuscript and the hand-written libretto and includes all deviating versions and notations relating to corrections in both sources. 

For more information on Viktor Ullmann and The Emperor of Atlantis, visit schott-music.com.

Viktor Ullmann
Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung, op. 49 (1943/1944)
a play in one act
libretto (Ger) by Peter Kien
English translation by Sonja Lyndon
for soprano, alto/mezzo-soprano, 2 tenors, baritone, 2 bass
1(pic).1.1.asax.0-0.1.0.0-2perc-banjo(gtr)-cemb(pno).harm-str(1.1.1.1.1)
60’

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