Name: Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)
Start: 2024-12-01
End: 2024-12-10
Location: Deutsche Oper Berlin

Zemlinsky's DER ZWERG tells the double drama of a man of small stature: his disability makes him the object of ridicule and contempt by society, and the fact that he himself is unaware of his disability makes him the victim of a perfidious game.

Mick Morris Mehnert und David Butt Philip als Der ZwergMonika Rittershaus

Mick Morris Mehnert als Zwerg, Elena Tsallagova als Donna ClaraRuth Tromboukis

David Butt Philip als Der Zwerg, Elena Tsallagova als Donna ClaraRuth Tromboukis

u. a. Elena TsallagovaMonika Rittershaus

Emily Magee, Amber Fasquelle, Maiju Vaahtoluoto und Flurina StuckiMonika Rittershaus

u. a. Mick Morris MehnertMonika Rittershaus

Elena Tsallagova und Mick Morris MehnertMonika Rittershaus

David Butt Philip und Mick Morris MehnertMonika Rittershaus

Elena Tsallgova, David Butt Philip und Mick Morris MehnertMonika Rittershaus

In his acclaimed production, Tobias Kratzer brings Zemlinsky's opera to the stage as a bitter psychological thriller - and uses the autobiographical background of the composer's unhappy relationship with Alma Schindler-Mahler, who was also of small stature, as a framework.

Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles

Director: Tobias Kratzer

With Elena Tsallagova, Felicia Moore, David Butt Philip, Mick Morris Mehnert, Philipp Jekal, Adelle Eslinger-Runnicles, Evgeny Nikiforov and others.

It’s Princess Donna Clara’s 18th birthday and she’s getting showered with presents from all sides, but one gift in particular, from the Turkish Sultan, stands out from the crowd: a real-life dwarf! Amidst all the splendour and beauty the misshapen man attracts her special attention, charming her with his singing and fascinating her all the more for seeming to be blissfully unaware of his physical appearance.

The dwarf falls madly in love with the princess and is blind to the coquettish game that she is playing. But then he comes face-to-face with his reflection for the first time in his life. Realising the truth of his situation, he falls down dead. Alexander Zemlinsky’s THE DWARF is based on Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Birthday of the Infanta” and received its world premiere in 1922. Following Zemlinsky’s death in 1942 in American exile the work quickly slipped from public awareness, not to be rediscovered until the 1970s.

Since then it has been drawing crowds as a subtle, vibrant seismogram of a highly complex and psychological constellation.

With THE DWARF, Alexander von Zemlinsky came to terms with his traumatic love affair with Alma Schindler, who had left him, a relatively short and outwardly unattractive man, to marry Gustav Mahler. In his production, director Tobias Kratzer has not dealt with this autobiographical background to the opera in this way, but has staged the piece as a modern fairy tale about the birthday of a rich, spoilt and ruthless daughter from a wealthy family.

However, he prefaced Zemlinsky's one-act opera with a prologue. This contains the orchestral piece "Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene" by Arnold Schönberg, who was a student of Zemlinsky and later married Zemlinsky's sister Mathilde. Schönberg's orchestral piece was written to accompany a silent film yet to be shot - and becomes the soundtrack to a piano lesson between Zemlinsky and his pupil and later lover Alma, which also tells the story of their brief and passionate relationship.

(In German with German and English surtitles)

Additional information

In German with German and English surtitles

Opera in one act

Libretto by Georg C. Klaren, based on Oscar Wilde's „The Birthday of the Infanta“First performed on 28th May, 1922 in Cologne

Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 24th March, 2019

As a prologue Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951) Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene für Orchester op. 34 (1930)

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

Participating artists

Sir Donald Runnicles (Musikalische Leitung)

Tobias Kratzer (Inszenierung)

Rainer Sellmaier (Bühne, Kostüme)

Stefan Woinke (Licht)

Jeremy Bines (Chöre)

Sebastian Hanusa (Dramaturgie)

Elena Tsallagova (Donna Clara)

Felicia Moore (Ghita)

David Butt Philip (Der Zwerg)

Mick Morris Mehnert (Der Zwerg (Darsteller))

Philipp Jekal (Don Estoban)

Sua Jo (Die erste Zofe)

Arianna Manganello (Die zweite Zofe)

Stephanie Wake-Edwards (Die dritte Zofe)

So Young Park (Das erste Mädchen)

Kristina Griep (Das zweite Mädchen)

Adelle Eslinger-Runnicles (Alma Schindler (Pianistin))

Evgeny Nikiforov (Alexander von Zemlinsky (Pianist))

Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Chöre)

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Orchester)

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