Lulu

Opera by Alban Berg

Why is this opera called Lulu? Because Dr. Schön calls our protagonist Mignon. Walter Schwarz, the painter, calls her Eva, Dr. Goll called her Nelly. A few, Schigolch for example and Geschwitz, actually call her Lulu. Nobody knows her actual name and her nature is as unknown as her name. From the darkness of her incognito, she consistently eludes any role ascription.
role ascription. She refuses to play the role of wife or girlfriend in equal measure. She also refuses to be pigeonholed as a mistress and certainly not as a whore. And yet, she tells us, she has never wanted to seem anything else in the world than what she was taken for. And she has never been taken for anything in the world other than what she is. This is where the cat bites its tail and Eva, Lulu, Mignon or Nelly slip away from us like an electron from a quantum physicist. What remains is a blur that cannot be focused on any further. Yet Lulu's - let's stick with the name - impact is undisputed. The blood trail of no less than seven corpses
corpses through the opera. From the murder of Dr. Schön by her own hand, the contract killing of the athlete, a provoked suicide (Maler) and a medical emergency (Dr. Goll) to several collateral deaths such as Alwa or Geschwitz and finally herself, everything is included.

If we want to get to the bottom of her, we have no choice but to invite this character back onto a theater stage and try to illuminate another piece of the puzzle to identify her in the light of the spotlights. And even if we don't understand too much, another evening with Lulu might at least give us a small idea of the cathartic or destructive or whatever kind of task the nameless power inherent in her has been assigned in the web of human shortcomings.

A production of the Opera School of the HMDK Stuttgart
With the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Erasmus Ensemble Stuttgart

Musical direction: Bernhard Epstein
Stage direction: Bernd Schmitt
Set design: Annette Wolf

30 minutes before the start of the performance there will be an introduction to the play in the Wilhelma Theater studio. Admission is free.