About the work
Wallenberg is an opera by Erkki-Sven Tüür to a libretto by Lutz Hübner. Commissioned by Oper Dortmund, it premiered there on 5 May 2001, conducted by Alexander Rumpf and directed by Philipp Kochheim.
Plot
The opera tells the story of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who was posted to Budapest in 1944 and, through protective passports and safe houses, spared thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation. The realistic first act shows his defiance of the Nazi extermination machinery, while the surreal second act interrogates the later mythologising of his figure.
Cultural significance
Wallenberg's own fate remained unresolved: he disappeared into Soviet custody in 1945 and has since become one of the most enigmatic figures of twentieth-century history. Tüür's opera is among the few contemporary stage works to engage musically with this subject, and it was also staged at the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn in 2007.