Lulu: Première in its three-act form at the Wiener Staatsoper, 3rd December 2017

On Sunday, 3rd December 2017, Alban Berg’s Lulu will celebrate its première in its three act form as completed by Friedrich Cerha at the Wiener Staatsoper. Willy Decker’s production has been known to the audience of the State Opera since its première on 12th February 2000 – indeed, it appeared no less than 21 times on the opera house’s schedule until 2005 in its two-act form. Lulu, based on Frank Wedekind’s tragedies Erdgeist and Pandora’s Box could not be completed by Alban Berg and was only premièred in Zurich after his death in 1937. It became a tradition to perform the work as a fragment in two acts followed by two parts of Berg’s Symphonische Stücke. Even the première in Vienna in 2000 followed this tradition. Lulu was first performed at the Wiener Staatsoper in 1968 directed by Otto Schenk, conducted by Karl Böhm and with Anja Silja in the title role.

The orchestration of the third act was finally completed by Friedrich Cerha and had its world première in its three-act form in 1979 in Paris. On the 24th October 1983, under the musical direction of the then director Lorin Maazel and with Julia Migenes as Lulu, the three-act version saw its first performance at the Wiener Staatsoper.

For the coming premiere, Willy Decker returns to the Wiener Staatsoper to present his celebrated production of Lulu in its three-act form. The internationally celebrated German director has directed productions of Billy Budd, Die tote Stadt and Idomeneo (at the Theater an der Wien) for the Wiener Staatsoper. Further projects as a director have taken him to Amsterdam, Berlin, to the Salzburg Festival and to the Dresden State Opera, amongst many others.

He described his thoughts in the programme of the 2000 Première:
„Lulu provokes insecurity – everyone and everything under her spell has the floor swept from under their feet, topples and staggers. Lulu, the person and Lulu the piece are based on uncertainty. […] the piece describes the fundamental tension between female and male as an eternal struggle – the location of the struggle, and with it, the location of the piece is the arena.

The première series will be conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. He made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2009 with the new production of Lady Macbeth von Mzensk and has since conducted performances of Parsifal, the première of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny as well as Jenůfa; and most recently, Lady Macbeth von Mzensk in May 2017. The German conductor is the current artistic director of the KunstFestSpiele Herrenhaus in Hannover.

The scenery is by Wolfgang Gussmann. Alongside Billy Budd and Die tote Stadt, Lulu marks the third collaboration at the Wiener Staatsoper between the stage and costume artist and Willy Decker. He also designed the set for Moses and Aron as well as Lohengrin.