The Emperor of Atlantis

Opera by Viktor Ullmann to the libretto by Peter Kien

One-act opera by Viktor Ullmann to the libretto by Peter Kien
World premiere on May 23, 1995 in De Nederlandse Opera 
Premiere in Von Krahl Theatre in Telliskivi Creative City on August 14, 2024

Music Director and Conductor: Kaspar Mänd (Estonian National Opera)
Stage Director: Peeter Jalakas (Von Krahl Theatre)
Libretto translation: Peeter Volkonski
Dramaturge: Taavi Eelmaa
Production Assistant: Karin Andrekson
Designer: Kristel Zimmer 
Assistant to the Designer: Ksenia Verbeštšuk
Lighting Designer: Priidu Adlas 

Estonian National Opera Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra

Estonian National Opera Soloists:

Emperor: Tamar Nugis
Death: Priit Volmer
The Loudspeaker: Mart Laur
Soldier: Heldur Harry Põlda
The Drummer: Juuli Lill
Harlequin: Rafael DiCenta
Bubikopf: Kristel Pärtna

Estonian National Opera and Von Krahl Theatre begin the season with an exciting co-project, Viktor Ullmann’s one-act opera “The Emperor of Atlantis” (Der Kaiser von Atlantis”) that has never been performed in Estonia before.

Ullmann wrote the opera in the Theresienstadt concentration camp together with his fellow prisoner librettist Peter Kien in 1943–1944.

“The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death” focuses on the dictatorial aspirations of the Emperor of mythical Atlantis in overtaking the role of Death in universal war, where everyone must fight until there is no one left alive. Death protests on the Emperor’s usurpation of his profession and goes on strike until the Emperor agrees to compromise – he must be the first to show how to die for a noble cause. The opera is a satirical jab at Hitler’s vision of the Third Reich and its driving ideology that does not value human life. 

Music Director and Conductor Kaspar Mänd: ““The Emperor of Atlantis” is a story of grand proportions in the form of a chamber opera that presents us with such characters as Death and the Harlequin, a madman dictator Overall, a gullible and propaganda-brainwashed Bubikopf … sounds familiar?

Most likely there is no other opera written under such difficult conditions as “The Emperor of Atlantis”. The people sent to Theresienstadt were trapped in a limbo between two worlds, knowing what was lying ahead, but not knowing when it would happen. In such a situation, many saw as their last resort in keeping human dignity and morale alive to create music and art. As Viktor Ullmann has said in his diaries, they by no means just sat lamenting by Babylon’s rivers and that their will to culture was adequate to their will to live.

Ullmann’s music is a rich amalgam of late Romanticism, cabaret-like songs, atonality and blues that cites Lutheran Chorales and German hymn, Mahler and pop songs familiar to his audiences. For a chamber opera it has very many layers”.

Stage Director Peeter Jalakas: ““The Emperor of Atlantis” is a work that evokes questions on the deeper motives of creating. What is the inner flame that inspires people to create even in the most difficult situations, knowing that they are facing fatal dangers and unavoidably tragic consequences? Is it a humanly innate power to find beauty and meaning even in the direst conditions? Or rather an egotistic and natural urge to surprise others by offering something extraordinary “that pushes the limits of impermissible”? To defy the circumstances and give your best as usual?

And will an artist be ready to pay for this with his life? Or was the main motive of creating the piece the desire to leave this world dignified and self-conscious, with your head held high?

The answer is simple: we all have a desire to love and be loved. Notwithstanding the circumstances and what life has provided you with. It is the task of an artist to find it and remind us about it. Notwithstanding the circumstances and what life has provided you with”.