‘Someone must have slandered Josef K, for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.’ This is the famous opening line of Franz Kafka’s novel Der Prozess (The Trial). Gottfried von Einem’s opera of the same name also begins with this mysterious arrest. Josef K. suddenly finds himself in a world he cannot understand, faced with an accusation of which he knows nothing but which seems perfectly clear to everyone else and yet remains inexplicable; with an absurd court case that nevertheless follows strict rules; with an arrest that appears to have no effect on his life yet still leads to his death. Is Josef K. the victim of a conspiracy, or is his belief in a conspiracy the only chance of explaining an incomprehensible world?
Gottfried von Einem’s opera was first performed in 1953 when the popularity of Kafka’s work had reached its first peak. His music uses pulsing rhythms, recurring structures and echoes of jazz and twelve-tone music to describe the subtle terror of the novel, without losing sight of the grotesque humour of the source material. Today, 100 years after Kafka’s death and in a world of digital overindulgence and constant surveillance, we look at this trial in a radically different light. MusikTheater an der Wien’s acclaimed new production, arranged by Tobias Leppert as a chamber opera, is conducted by Walter Kobéra and directed by Stefan Herheim. Streamed by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision.
Sung in German. Subtitles in German and English
Streamed on Friday 14th February 2025 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 New York
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