Der Protagonist
This one-act German Literaturoper by Kurt Weill is based on Georg Kaiser's 1920 play The Protagonist.
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This one-act German Literaturoper by Kurt Weill is based on Georg Kaiser's 1920 play The Protagonist.
After the hungry Severin steals a pineapple and is shot by policeman Olim, Olim wins a lottery and quietly uses his fortune to help Severin recover. They travel to Olim's castle, where the scheming Frau von Luber takes the estate and money; Fennimore reconciles the two men, who leave together through winter toward the frozen Silbersee, resolved to face the future with hope.
In a Paris photographic studio, the proprietor Angèle learns that the Tsar is coming to have his portrait taken. Revolutionaries seize the studio and disguise members of their gang as Angèle and her staff, hiding a gun in the camera to kill the Tsar; after the police arrive, the gang escapes, and the Tsar finally has his photograph taken by the real staff.
An idealistic pawnbroker is caught up in Germany's hyperinflation. Kaiser shifts from his earlier Expressionism toward rounded characterization, realistic clipped dialogue and a light-hearted story of the crisis.
A linguistically dense play with emotive monologues, marked by Nietzschean ideas and the Expressionist call for individuals to transcend mediocrity through extraordinary action.
A bank cashier, stirred by an Italian visitor, leaves his provincial town to test whether money can give him a fuller life. His search ends in disillusionment and death.
This one-act German Literaturoper by Kurt Weill is based on Georg Kaiser's 1920 play The Protagonist.
After the hungry Severin steals a pineapple and is shot by policeman Olim, Olim wins a lottery and quietly uses his fortune to help Severin recover. They travel to Olim's castle, where the scheming Frau von Luber takes the estate and money; Fennimore reconciles the two men, who leave together through winter toward the frozen Silbersee, resolved to face the future with hope.
In a Paris photographic studio, the proprietor Angèle learns that the Tsar is coming to have his portrait taken. Revolutionaries seize the studio and disguise members of their gang as Angèle and her staff, hiding a gun in the camera to kill the Tsar; after the police arrive, the gang escapes, and the Tsar finally has his photograph taken by the real staff.
An idealistic pawnbroker is caught up in Germany's hyperinflation. Kaiser shifts from his earlier Expressionism toward rounded characterization, realistic clipped dialogue and a light-hearted story of the crisis.
A linguistically dense play with emotive monologues, marked by Nietzschean ideas and the Expressionist call for individuals to transcend mediocrity through extraordinary action.
A bank cashier, stirred by an Italian visitor, leaves his provincial town to test whether money can give him a fuller life. His search ends in disillusionment and death.