"KAISERREQUIEM" translates to "Emperor's Requiem" in English.

The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann / Requiem in D minor KV 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

In German and Latin with German and English surtitles

Emperor Overall rules as a tyrant over Atlantis. When he finally declares war on all, Death decides to stop his work. In an act of populist demagoguery, the Emperor presents himself as the inventor of immortality. But without Death, the land descends into chaos. The Emperor must realize that his power is broken.

In the face of persecution and annihilation by the Nazis, Viktor Ullmann composed his Emperor of Atlantis in 1943/44 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, creating a poignant symbol against inhumane warmongering and totalitarian power structures. In October 1944, he—like his co-librettist Peter Kien—was deported to Auschwitz with the so-called "artist transport" and murdered. Shifting between contemporary opera, mystery play, and dance of death, The Emperor of Atlantis unfolds a unique theatrical sound world.

For the premiere of KaiserRequiem, conductor Omer Meir Wellber has created an unusual intertwining of Ullmann's nearly sixty-minute chamber opera with perhaps the most famous torso in music history: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's musical legacy, the Requiem in D minor KV 626—composed in 1791 in the face of his own death and torn apart by Death. KaiserRequiem is a dialogue between these two works about the great questions of human existence. KaiserRequiem is also a collaboration of all disciplines of the house: the dancers of the Vienna State Ballet, soloists, as well as the choir and orchestra of the Volksoper Vienna, under the direction and choreography of Andreas Heise.

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