Dr. Faustus between Beethoven and Schönberg, intoxication and illumination

From the turn of the century around 1900 to the total catastrophe at the end of the Second World War, signatures emerged that are once again troubling us today: the susceptibility to autocratic, totalitarian tendencies and fascist structures of thought and action, as well as blatant racism.

In 1943, Thomas Mann wrote to his son Klaus Mann: "I want to write something again and am pursuing a very old plan (...): An artist-musician and modern devil's conspiracy story from the fateful region of Maupassant, Nietzsche, Hugo Wolf (...) - in short, the theme of bad inspiration and genialization that ends with being taken by the devil (...). But the idea of intoxication in general and of anti-reason is intertwined with it, thus also the political, fascist and thus the sad fate of Germany. The whole thing (...) is set in Germany yesterday and today."

Few novels in world literature show the above-mentioned complex structure of his and at the same time our time more ruthlessly than Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus" - using the example of the musician Adrian Leverkühn and the path into the abyss of the Germans from 1943, the moment when the fictional narrator Serenus Zeitblom in Munich and the real narrator Thomas Mann in Pacific Palisades/USA begin to write.

The theater evening is multifaceted: exciting dialogues between the actors in various roles, which can be experienced without any prior knowledge of Thomas Mann. Beethoven's legendary Piano Sonata opus 111 in C minor and Schönberg's Suite for Piano opus 25 will be played - and deepen the experience of the text.

We cordially invite you to this somewhat different Faust evening.

Hans-Joachim Mattke (text and performer)
Wenzel Gummer (piano and performer)
Directed by: Hans-Joachim Mattke

A cooperation with the association Château d'Orion e.V.
- Freundeskreis zur Förderung interkultureller Projekte -