Zemlinsky: DER ZWERG

Released
2010

World premiere DVD recordings. These are the first fully-staged productions of the LA Opera’s ‘Recovered Voices’ project, which highlights the works of composers affected by the Holocaust.

Despite the popularity of these operas’ source material (The Broken Jug is a famed 19th century play that was actually first staged by Goethe in 1808), these works from Zemlinsky and Ullmann remained buried for decades due to the destructive policies of the Nazi regime.

‘Full recognition of their works and genius still awaits Alexander Zemlinsky and Viktor Ullmann, more than sixty-five years after their deaths. Their works, in their very different ways, are powerful, vibrant, life-affirming and tragic in turn. They pulsate with the complexity of the human condition. Their lives and personal histories were tragic, but their music transcends it all. It is for us to appreciate their story in its full historic and artistic context.’ James Conlon