Die letzten Tage der Menschlichkeit?

Georg Nigl baritone
Vladimir Jurowski piano
Nicholas Ofczarek recitation

Programme:
Excerpts from »Die letzten Tage der Menschheit« (The Last Days of Mankind) by Karl Kraus (in German)
Music by Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Hanns Eisler and Pete Seeger

Acclaimed Austrian baritone Georg Nigl has adapted the concept of his »Musical Salons« from the previous two festivals for »Die letzten Tage der Menschlichkeit?«: a unique combination of recital and readings whose interplay enriches the selection of music and literature – creating an evening packed with existential intensity! Accompanied by Burgtheater actor Nicholas Ofczarek and Vladimir Jurowski, General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera, on the piano, Nigl presents a theatrical evening in which songs by Gustav Mahler, Hanns Eisler and Pete Seeger are interwoven with texts from Karl Kraus’s »Die letzten Tage der Menschheit« (The Last Days of Mankind). Written between 1915 and 1922, the Austrian author’s monumental drama is an astute and uncompromising reckoning with the horrors of the First World War. These three expressive artists turn a combination of song, text and music into a harrowing indictment of war and a thought-provoking reflection on humanity in all its tragedy and destructiveness …

supported by the Wolfgang und Ursula Braun Stiftung