About the work
Kurt Weill composed this one-act opera in 1925 in Berlin, to a libretto written specially for him by Georg Kaiser, who adapted his own 1920 tragedy of the same name for the setting. It premiered on 27 March 1926 at the Dresden Semperoper, conducted by Fritz Busch and directed by Josef Gielen.
Plot
The Protagonist, leader of an English acting troupe in Shakespeare’s time, rehearses two pantomimes for the Duke with his company – one burlesque, one tragic. During the rehearsal of the tragic pantomime he can no longer distinguish play from reality, and in a fit of jealousy he stabs his sister, to whom he is bound by an unspoken, incestuous attraction.
Cultural significance
“Der Protagonist” brought the 25-year-old Weill his first public acclaim and is regarded as his breakthrough into serious music theatre as well as a key work of musical expressionism. The close interweaving of pantomime and orchestral music without singing in the play-within-a-play scenes was unusual for opera of its time.