About the work
Antikrist ("Antichrist") is an opera (a "church mystery") in a prologue and six scenes by Rued Langgaard, who also wrote the libretto, inspired by the Book of Revelation. The Danish composer worked on the piece from 1921 into the 1930s; it was never performed in his lifetime. Its staged premiere took place only decades after his death; in 2022 the Deutsche Oper Berlin presented Antikrist in a production by Ersan Mondtag.
Plot
In an apocalyptic vision, God permits Lucifer to send the Antichrist to earth for one hour before the Last Judgment dawns. The Antichrist has no single form but appears in a succession of allegorical embodiments — among them Pride, the Lie, Hatred, Despondency and the "Mouth Speaking Great Things". In imagistically powerful scenes there unfolds not a conventional plot drama but a symbolist mystery play about delusion, the end times and the nature of evil.
Cultural significance
Antikrist is regarded as the principal work of Rued Langgaard, a long-misjudged Danish outsider of music history. The bold score, oscillating between late Romanticism and modernism, and the radically unconventional libretto made performance impossible in his lifetime. Only the rediscovery of Langgaard in the late twentieth century brought the work to light; the acclaimed Berlin production of 2022 confirmed its force as apocalyptic music theatre.