Franz Schreker · aftercurtain

Shows & credits

Christophorus oder Die Vision einer Oper

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1978

Composition student Anselm is assigned a string quartet based on St Christopher but decides to write an opera starring himself, his composer friend Christoph, and Christoph’s wife Lisa, whom Anselm loves. A year later, Christoph has left composition for family life, while Lisa is dissatisfied and attracted to Anselm. When Christoph discovers them together, he shoots and kills Lisa; he and Anselm flee. They reach a seedy nightclub, where a séance lets Christoph, under opium, try to contact Lisa. Anselm realizes he is losing control of his opera. In the epilogue, dream and reality blur; unable to finish, Anselm returns to music’s simplest form and begins the string quartet.

Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1913

A two-act opera by Franz Schreker.

Der Schatzgräber

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1920

The minstrel Elis is enlisted to recover the queen’s lost jewels. Innkeeper’s daughter Els, desperate to escape a forced marriage, arranges the murder of her suitor and sends Elis to find the jewels; after he is accused, she helps secure his release. The fool saves Els from execution by claiming her as his promised wife, but a year later she dies, consoled by Elis’s song.

Der Schmied von Gent

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1932

In wartime Ghent, blacksmith Smee loses his trade after being denounced for opposing Spanish rule. On the verge of drowning himself, he accepts seven years of wealth in return for his soul. As the pact nears its end, he repairs a donkey’s shoe for a poor family who prove to be Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Joseph grants him three wishes, which Smee uses to outwit Hell’s emissaries. After Lucifer appears, the forge vanishes. At death Smee is rejected by both Hell and Heaven, so he opens a food stall for the dead. His wife intercedes with Joseph, who weighs Smee’s good and bad deeds and admits him to Paradise.

Der ferne Klang

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1912

Fritz leaves Grete to pursue the mysterious sound he hopes to capture in music. Years later, after Grete has become a courtesan, they meet again but separate; when Fritz’s opera fails and he grows ill, they are reunited, and he finally hears the sound before dying in her arms.

Der singende Teufel

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1928

Young organ-builder Amandus refuses to complete the great organ that drove his father mad. Lilian, who loves him, asks him to lead pagans in their spring rites, but he commits to Christianity. The pagan knight Sinbrand abducts Lilian after Amandus refuses a duel; Father Kaleidos rescues Amandus. Amandus becomes a monk and completes the organ, hoping its music will pacify the pagans. When they lay down their weapons, Kaleidos orders them slaughtered. Weeks later, Lilian tends the broken Amandus. She burns the monastery to break his despair; the organ produces heavenly sounds, Amandus is transformed, and Lilian dies.

Die Gezeichneten

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1918

In sixteenth-century Genoa, the deformed nobleman Alviano offers the people his island estate, unaware that his friends use its grotto for abductions and orgies. Carlotta falls in love with him but is seduced by Tamare; when Alviano discovers her with Tamare, he kills him, and Carlotta dies calling for her assailant.

Flammen

Music · Opera · 1902

At a castle after the First Crusade, Irmgard is torn between her returning husband and feelings aroused by a minstrel. To save the prince from a death curse tied to her welcome kiss, she drinks poison and dies, revealing her distress and love for the minstrel.

Irrelohe

Music and Libretto · Opera · 1924

A curse on the castle of Irrelohe drives each lord to assault a woman and die insane. Peter learns he was born of the assault on his mother and fears he has inherited the madness; as Eva falls in love with the current lord, Heinrich, Peter tries to assault her at their wedding but is killed by Heinrich, who then looks toward a future with Eva.

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