Opernhaus Zürich AG

Opernhäuser, so wird gerne behauptet, seien Orte für das Gute, Wahre und Schöne.
But that can be deceiving, like the plot of Franz Schreker's rarely played opera Die Gezeichnetenshows, with which we open the season 2018/19. In it, the malformed Genoese nobleman Alviano Salvago has created a glorious island of art beauty, but secretly there are celebrated orgies of erotic debauchery, and in the catacombs, a violent male clique disgraced innocent bourgeois daughters. The supposed Elysium proves to be a place of the corrupt and the perverted. Schreker's large-format work reveals a claim that is inherent in the art form of opera beyond and beyond brilliant singer performances, scenic sights and touching music: Deep down, it gazes into the depths of human existence and shines - unspoiled by morality and current political correctness debates - the darkest corners in the soul of the individual and the constitution of entire societies.