Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis Orchestre Musique des Lumières & Facundo Agudin

• Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944): Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Op. 49b:
• 1 Hallo, hallo 01:52
• 2 Präludium 01:11
• 3 Der Mond geht auf den Firsten 01:57
• 4 Laß sein! Was singst du da 00:42
• 5 Tage, Tage 00:59
• 6 Ich fühle mich wenig wohl in meiner Haut 00:54
• 7 Und was ist das? 00:50
• 8 Es lächert mich, wenn ich dir zuhöre 00:37
• 9 Das waren Kriege 01:47
• 10 Hallo, hallo! Achtung! Achtung! 04:00
• 11 Hörst du wie sie mich höhnen? 01:15
• 12 Intermezzo. Totentanz 02:00
• 13 Wie spät ist es 04:30
• 14 Wir, Overall, der Einzige 01:05
• 15 Wer da? Halt! Steh! 02:27
• 16 Ist's wahr, daß es Landschaften gibt 01:05
• 17 Komm, fort von hier 01:48
• 18 Schau, die Wolken 01:12
• 19 Tanz - Intermezzo. Die lebenden Toten 01:34
• 20 Hallo, hallo, der oberste General 00:51
• 21 Wir sind um einen Kreutzer Süßes 03:01
• 22 Außenamt! 01:04
• 23 Nicht dran denken, nicht dran denken 00:59
• 24 Ich bin der Tod 02:54
• 25 Der Krieg ist aus 06:46
• 26 Komm, Tod, du unser werter Gast 02:34
• Total Runtime 49:54

Info for Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis

Viktor Ullmanns Oper Der Kaiser von Atlantis ist ein ergreifendes Stück. Nicht nur inhaltlich nimmt einen dieses Stück unmittelbar gefangen, sondern auch die Geschichte seiner Entstehung ist bedrückend: Ullmann schrieb Der Kaiser von Atlantis im Ghetto Theresienstadt. In den knapp zwei Jahren, die Ullmann im Ghetto verbrachte, und bevor er zu seiner Ermordung im KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau deportiert wurde, bemühte er sich um ein Musikleben in der trostlosesten Umgebung, die man sich vorstellen kann. Mehr als ein Drittel aller seiner Kompositionen entstanden im Ghetto.

Der Kaiser von Atlantis ist seine einzige Oper aus dieser Zeit (eine zweite Oper, ein Jeanne d'Arc-Stoff, konnte nicht beendet werden). Die Handlung ist bemerkenswert: Angesichts einer Kriegserklärung des Kaisers »gegen alle« verweigert der Tod seinen Dienst. Unter den kämpfenden Soldaten bricht eine Krankheit aus: Sie können nicht mehr sterben. Unter den Soldaten bricht ein Aufstand aus: Man weigert sich, dem Kriegsbefehl weiter Folge zu leisten, doch der Kaiser will den Krieg nicht aufgeben. Da macht ihm der Tod ein Angebot: Er ist bereit, seine Arbeit wieder aufzunehmen, wenn der Kaiser einwilligt, der Erste zu sein, der ihm folgt. Der Kaiser willigt ein und geht in den Tod, um den Krieg am Leben zu erhalten.

Die erschütternde Handlung der Oper ist vor allem im Kontext mit ihrer Entstehungssituation eines der bemerkenswertesten Zeitdokumente aus der Zeit der Terrorherrschaft des Nationalsozialismus. Der nun vorliegende Mitschnitt ist der erste, der sich auf das handschriftliche Manuskript der Oper stützt. Der Aufführung, mitgeschnitten beim Festival Musiques des Lumières, ging eine dreijährige, intensive Vorbereitung aller Beteiligten voraus.

Pierre-Yves Pruvot, Bariton
Wassyl Slipak, Bariton
Anna Wall, Sopran
Natalie Perez, Sopran
Sebastien Obrecht, Tenor
Orchestre Musique des Lumieres
Facundo Agudin, Dirigent

Musique des Lumieres
Founded in 2004, Orchestre Musique des Lumières quickly became a major cultural player in Switzerland. Since its foundation, Facundo Agudin has been its artistic and Music director. The MdL Orchestra develops many contemporary projects: in June 2011 MdL and Agudin were invited by Pedro Memelsdorff and Fondazione Giorgio Cini to create El laberinto by Julio Viera. The world premiere was given at the inauguration of the Borges-labyrinth, a greenery maze designed by Randoll Coate in the cloisters of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice. Since 2012, MdL has led the Nuevo Tango Nuevo project in collaboration with Marcelo Nisinman, Pablo Ortiz and Julio Viera. In cooperation with Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel, Musique des Lumières and Facundo Agudin lead the Dürrenmatt 2021 anniversary programme, a contemporary music project which includes world premières by composers Marco Pérez-Ramírez, Dominique Gesseney, Andreas Pflüger, Philippe Schoeller and Richard Dubugnon. Agudin and MdL commissioned numerous works by Andreas Pflüger, including the operas Der schwarze Mozart (Basel, 2006), Romulus der Grosse (Neuchâtel, 2015), the Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Bandoneon (Prague, 2007) and Pitture (Geneva, 2014). The orchestra has developed collaborations with Opera Obliqua, Kaserne Basel, Theater Biel, the Polish National Opera - Poznán, Ricordi Munich, Universal Music Group, DRS2 radio, Oehms Classics, NEOS Music, Doron Music, Festival Stand’Eté, Théâtre du Passage Neuchâtel, Lyrica Neuchâtel, Palace in Bienne, Théâtre de Vevey, L’Equilibre - Théâtre de Fribourg, Le Granit Scène Nationale de Belfort, Orchestra Classica Italiana, Scuola di perfezzionamento musicale di Saluzzo, the Torino Winter Games Committee, Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel, ARCAL Paris. MdL recorded with Radio Télévision Suisse for the labels OehmsClassics, Neos Music and Doron. Since 2016, the orchestra is associated with Spanish label IBS Classical, currently publishing the albums Bach Mirror, Mozart & Dürrenmatt, Proyecto Cortázar, as well as a revised edition of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, after the study of the manuscript at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. Orchestre Musique des Lumières is supported by the République et canton du Jura in Switzerland. Its projects receive financial support from the Loterie Romande, the Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, the Charlotte Kerr Dürrenmatt-Stiftung among many other institutions.

Facundo Agudin
is a Swiss-Argentine conductor. Following his studies at the Universidad Católica Argentina he was trained in medieval music and historical composition with Pedro Memelsdorff in Bologna and at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. His six-year professional experience as a member of the Swiss Chamber Choir with the Zurich Tonhalle Zurich under Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, Armin Jordan, Sir Simon Rattle, Gennadii Roshdestwenskii, Wolfgang Sawallisch and David Zinman provided major impulses for his further development as a conductor. In 2007, he was granted First Prize at Colin Metters Seminar (St Petersburg Symphony). Based in Basel, he is the artistic director of Musique des Lumières. He worked as principal guest conductor at the Armenian National Opera and was a guest at the Mariinsky Theatre with Gounod’s Faust in 2014 and 2015. In 2017, he will make his debut with the Würth Philharmonic at the Enescu Festival – XXI Century Series. With this orchestra, he was invited to develop a collaboration with Kent Nagano, Giuliano Carmignola, Ramón Vargas and Roberto Alagna. He has performed with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta, Biel Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, State Opera Orchestra of Armenia, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Kislovodsk Philharmonic, Polish National Opera-Teatr Wielki Poznan, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, National Symphony of Argentina, Teatro Argentino de La Plata, CRT Torino, Sinfonica Aosta, Orchestre symphonique de Besançon, Ensemble Ars Nova Poitiers, Orchestre régional de Cannes, Desaga Chamber Orchestra. On the contemporary opera scene, he has premiered Der schwarze Mozart and Romulus der Grosse by Andreas Pflüger. In cooperation with Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel, he currently directs Dürrenmatt 2021, a contemporary music project which includes commissions to composers Marco Pérez-Ramírez, Dominique Gesseney, Andreas Pflüger, Philippe Schoeller and Richard Dubugnon. Together with Musique des Lumières, Facundo Agudin recorded for Swiss National Radio SRF2 Kultur, NEOS Music, Oehms Classics, Doron Music. He has collaborated with Universal Music Group and Ricordi Germany. In 2016, he became an artist of IBS Classical, which is currently publishing the albums Bach Mirror, Mozart & Dürrenmatt, Proyecto Cortázar, as well as a revised edition of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, after the study of the manuscript at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. Facundo Agudin also dedicates himself to nurturing young talents: as a guest-professor he currently runs the Conducting Seminar at Buenos Aires National University for the Arts and is Music Director of Sinfónica Patagonia with Río Negro National University. He is a member of the “Hebdo / Forum des 100” and is a member of the jury at the Concours de Lausanne. In 2015 and 2016, Agudin is nominated to the “Best Argentine Conductor 2015” award, together with Daniel Barenboim. Agudin is represented by Hainzl & Delage Artists Management.

Anna Wall
studied at Leeds University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she completed the GSMD Opera Course before spending two years in the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra National de Paris where she won the prestigious Prix Lyrique de l’Arop awarded by the Friends of the Opéra National de Paris. She made her début at the Opéra National de Paris as Il paggio (Rigoletto), followed by Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and Una Cretese (Idomeneo). Anna Wall’s recent engagements have included Flosshilde in Das Rheingold and Siegrune and Grimegerde in Die Walküre at the Opéra de Dijon, Junon in Charpentier’s Actéon and Fortuna and Venere/Pallade in L’incoronazione di Poppea, both with Le Concert d’Astrée conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm. Anna also sang Concepción in L’Heure espagnole as a guest soloist for the Atelier Lyrique. On the concert platform, Anna Wall made her début in the Royal Albert Hall in Mozart’s Requiem under Sir David Willcocks. Other engagements have included Messiah in Münster and performances of Bach St Matthew Passion, St John Passion and B Minor Mass, Duruflé Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Dvorak Stabat Mater and Elgar The Dream of Gerontius. She recently sang the Second Nymph in Rusalka at the Opéra de Paris. Since 2014, Anna Wall regularly performed Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis with ARCAL in Paris and on a European Tour, and with Musique des Lumières and Facundo Agudin for the new recording of the opera to be published by IBS Classical.

Lisandro Abadie
was born in Buenos Aires, where he began his musical studies. He later graduated in Switzerland, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and at the Musikhochschule Luzern. He was awarded the Edwin Fischer Gedenkpreis in 2006. He has sung under the direction of William Christie, Laurence Cummings, Facundo Agudin, Václav Luks, Jordi Savall, Paul Agnew, Paul Goodwin, Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Bonizzoni, Skip Sempé, Alan Curtis, Simon-Pierre Bestion, Hervé Niquet, Geoffroy Jourdain. In the field of opera, his repertoire extends from Monteverdi to contemporary music and particularly includes Handel and Viktor Ullmann. In 2010 he created the title role of the opera Cachafaz by Oscar Strasnoy, staged by Benjamn Lazar. He has collaborated with ensembles like Les Arts Florissants, Collegium 1704, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Talens Lyriques, Le Poème Harmonique, La Tempête, Le Concert Étranger, Ensemble Inégal, La Risonanza and others, as well as with the pianist and composer Paul Suits. He regularly performs at the London Handel Festival and appears as a guest artist in Paris, Prague, Karlsruhe, Göttingen. Among his numerous recordings: Handel’s Siroe, Monteverdi’s Madrigals, Music for Queen Caroline, Airs sérieux et à boire, The Passions, The Tempest, Aci Galatea e Polifemo, Der Rose Pilgerfahrt and a DVD production of La Resurrezione. In 2017, Abadie performs in Vivaldi’s Arsilda with Václav Luks (Bratislava, Lille, Versailles, Luxembourg, Caen) and in Alcione by Marin Marais with Jordi Savall (Paris, Versailles, Caen).

Booklet for Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis