About the work
Opera by Paul Dessau to a libretto by Karl Mickel, developing an idea Dessau had first discussed with Bertolt Brecht. Dessau and Mickel deliberately avoided a biographical work in favour of a 'Zeitstück' with contemporary resonance; composed in 1971–1973 on commission from the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where it premiered on 16 February 1974, directed by Ruth Berghaus with Theo Adam in the title role.
Plot
The opera follows Albert Einstein in American exile, where wartime pressure draws him into developing the atomic bomb, intended as a deterrent rather than a weapon to be used. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki he feels betrayed; two physicist characters embody opposing responses of opportunism and idealism, while comic Hanswurst interludes comment on the action on a folk-theatre level.
Cultural significance
Musically, Dessau combines stylistic quotations ranging from Bach to the Negro spiritual with a contemporary idiom. The premiere counted among East Germany's major operatic successes of the 1970s and toured to Florence, Stockholm, Hamburg and Wiesbaden; its rarely repeated West German staging at the 1980 Ruhrfestspiele confirmed the work's viability on stage.