"This piece already carries history with it"

Terezín, 1944. In the most deplorable circumstances imaginable, Victor Ullmann completes the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. The camp authorities forbid a first performance after a few rehearsals. The unmistakable allegory on Hitler and his downfall leads to one of the rare forms of censorship in the camp, which the Nazis showed as an example to the Red Cross. A few months later, Ullmann is put on a transport to Auschwitz along with all the musicians. No one returns.

Amsterdam, 16 December 1975. The long-lost opera has its world premiere at Theater Bellevue. Rhoda Levine signs on to direct, an NOS formation acts as orchestra, with Roberta Alexander and Tom Haenen in the cast.

Forty years later, Amsterdam, 16 December 2015. Young composer, filmmaker and director Robin Coops presents a new production of Der Kaiser von Atlantis which will be shown at four venues in May 2016 in collaboration with Theater na De Dam, De Nederlandse Reisopera and M31Foundation.

"I first heard the music four years ago and immediately fell in love with the melting pot of Kurt Weil and Ullmann's teachers Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander Zemlinky. Ullmann mixes late romanticism with the Second Viennese School and adds Weimar cabaret. And then there is a grotesque distortion of the German national anthem. The libretto is equally fascinating."

Battlefield full of endless suffering

An emperor calls for all-out war, the harlequin wonders what role he has left to play. Death, however, refuses all cooperation: no one can die anymore. Soon everyone on the battlefield suffers endlessly. Even those condemned to death fail to die. In desperation, the emperor begs Death to resume his duties. Death agrees, on one condition: the emperor will be his first victim. It is no coincidence that Ullmann provides precisely death with the most lyrical and loving music.

"My generation did not experience war," Coops says, "but that is precisely why I want to retell this story now, forty years after the first performance in Amsterdam. It is a story of all times, perhaps more topical than ever. Look at the flow of refugees, pigeonholing and numerical fetishism. At the same time, we are all citizens of the world; this opera is also about that."

Light as a connecting element

Coops therefore does not want any forced updating: "This piece already carries history with it." So no historical film footage interspersed with harrowing topical shots, but Coops does take inspiration from Brecht and the early film editing techniques used by Ullmann. "That returns especially in lighting and scenery. The light is the connecting element. I don't want to refer too much to history, but make the contrasts in the story visible using different light sources. I hope the audience will then make its own connection with history and current events."

Coops also finds that connection in his collaboration with De Nederlandse Reisopera. "In my work, I look not only for a mix of different genres, but also for the collaboration between young and more established singers. I think that combination is interesting and everyone learns something from it. Together we approach this opera as a theatrical work that leaves behind boundaries and is of all times."

Nicolas Mansfield, artistic director of De Nederlandse Reisopera, agrees wholeheartedly. "The Reisopera has a duty to support young creators and I am delighted that Robin approached us for this project. I was extremely touched by the story of Der Kaiser von Atlantis. I once visited Terezín myself and the stories about the musicians who lived there, died there, or were taken away to death camps made a deep impression. This opera is a testimony to the people who found strength in their creativity in the blackest page of history. And especially how people, through music, found their last strength."