About the work
The musical by Michael Kunze (book and lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music) was premiered in 2006 at the Raimund Theater in Vienna and is based on Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film. After "Elisabeth" and "Mozart!", Rebecca is the duo's third major work and ranks among the most successful German-language musical productions of the 2000s.
Plot
A young woman, who will never give her name, meets the widowed Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo and marries him after a whirlwind courtship. As the new mistress she returns with Maxim to his English country estate Manderley — where the shadow of his first wife Rebecca governs everything. The sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, fanatically devoted to Rebecca, drives the young wife to the brink of madness. When a shipwreck yields up Rebecca's body, the true story comes to light: Maxim killed his first wife because she was blackmailing him. Manderley burns down in a dramatic final scene.
Cultural significance
Rebecca established itself as a standard work in the German-language musical repertoire and was restaged in Japan, Hungary, Sweden and other countries. The title song "Rebecca" and the duet "Mrs. de Winter bin ich!" are among the best-known numbers of the German-language musical canon. Mrs. Danvers ranks among the most coveted female roles in modern musical theatre — psychologically complex, vocally demanding, theatrically extreme. A film adaptation failed several times, and a Broadway production was cancelled in 2012.