About the work
Opera in one act by Krzysztof Penderecki after Gerhart Hauptmann’s 1928 play of the same name; the libretto was written jointly by Penderecki and Harry Kupfer, who also directed the premiere. It was first performed on 15 August 1986 at the Grosses Festspielhaus during the Salzburg Festival.
Plot
During carnival in 1662, thirteen guests gather for dinner at the house of the wealthy mayor Schuller in the Silesian town of Bolkenhain while the plague rages outside. A masked stranger appears and one by one exposes the guests’ hidden misdeeds, including the mayor’s wife’s earlier relationship with a slave in Amsterdam.
Cultural significance
The work is among Penderecki’s less frequently staged operas but has been revived internationally, including at the Vienna State Opera, the Poznań opera house, Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden (1990) and, as its US premiere, at the Santa Fe Opera in 1988.