Last Days of the Opera

The title is inspired by the epic drama The Last Days of Mankind by KarlKraus. Published in full in 1922, the author ridicules the interconnectedills of modernity that he saw as fueling the war machine: nationalism, capitalism,unbridled technology, militarism, journalistic unscrupulousness as well asthe Viennese cultural scene at the time. It bears chilling parallels to our worldin 2020. The goal of the planned anthology, which will include some 100 essays,is to consider the relevance of opera in today’s dystopian world and to look topossible developments in the genre in the foreseeable future.The writers will include opera professionals: singers, directors, conductors aswell as creative minds from other fields who can bring new input, like philosophers,artists, film directors and actors. The book will feature an iconographyof original works by famous artists, in particular those of the renowned stagedesigner Richard Peduzzi.• Writers include: Marina Abramovic´, George Benjamin, Stephan Braunfels,Robert Carsen, Martin Crimp, Bernard Foccroulle, Philippe Jordan, JonasKaufmann, William Kentridge, Christian Lacroix, Jan Lauwers, Katie Mitchell,Riccardo Muti, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Denis Podalyclès, Thaddaeus Ropac,Matthias Schulz, Robert Wilson . . .Christian Kircher is Executive Director of Bundestheater-Holding GmbH inVienna. Gert Korentschnig is an opera critic (Wiener Kurier).Denise Wendel-Poray, writer, critic and former opera singer, is the author ofseveral books and essays on the relationship between art, theatre and music.She recently published Painting the Stage (Skira, 2019).