Lulu - Premiere - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Opera in two acts by
Alban Berg

after the tragedies Erdgeist and Pandora's box by Frank Wedekind

arranged by the composer


Alban Berg's unfinished opera based on Frank Wedekind's tragedies Erdgeist (1895) and Pandora's Box (1902) premiered in 1937. Heralded as "the true beast, the wild, beautiful beast," Lulu follows the rise and fall of her lovers and husbands until she is murdered by Jack the Ripper. Stylized equally as femme fatale and femme fragile, the title heroine appears as the image that others have of her. Is Lulu the victim of a machine of male oppression and bourgeois double standards, or is she herself a monstrous machine of seduction? After staging Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire at the invitation of the Wiener Festwochen in 2021, Cape Verde-born choreographer and dancer Marlene Monteiro Freitas found an inspiring accomplice in Lulu. Together with the French conductor Maxime Pascal, a passionate advocate of modernism, she has opted for an open form of the unfinished third act, which is supplemented with parts of Berg's Lulu suite.


musical direction
Maxime Pascal

concept and directing
Marlene Monteiro Freitas

stage
Yannick Fouassier

stage
Miguel Figueira

light
Yannick Fouassier

dramaturgy
Armin Kerber

Research
João Figueira

Lulu
Vera-Lotte Boecker

Dr. Schön
Bo Skovhus

Alwa
Edgaras Montvidas

Maler
Cameron Becker

Gräfin Geschwitz
Anne Sofie von Otter

Schigolch
Kurt Rydl

Garderobiere / Gymnasiast
Katrin Wundsam

Animal Tamer / Athlete
Martin Summer

Prince / valet
Paul Kaufmann


ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra


Subject to change.