Lady Magnesia / Twice Alexander - Music Theater at the Vienna Chamber Opera

Lady Magnesia: Opera in One Act
Libretto by Vera Stanewitsch based on George Bernard Shaw's play Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction
Twice Alexander: Opera Buffa in One Act
Libretto by André Wurmser

Black comedies, crime plays, or opera parodies? The one-act pieces Lady Magnesia (composed in 1975) and Twice Alexander (Alexandre Bis, composed in 1937) cannot be categorized any more than their two versatile creators, Mieczysław Weinberg and Bohuslav Martinů. The premise in both works is the same: a husband accuses his wife of infidelity and takes what he deems appropriate measures. However, the plans soon spiral out of control: George wants to murder Magnesia but gets drawn into a conversation with her. Alexandre, on the other hand, stages a comedy of errors to test his wife's fidelity—yet this very act causes her to start dreaming of an affair. Where Mozart's Così fan tutte brings the curtain down, these works truly get going: Does the men's distrust lead to a happy ending? Does a demanded proof of fidelity bring the desired clarity, perhaps even a purification, or does it simply cause the relationship to fall apart? The two operas ultimately provide different answers to these questions, which both Weinberg and Martinů articulate with ironic twists, jazzy interludes, and absurd imagination.

In German with German and English surtitles
Work introduction 30 minutes before the performance starts