Der ferne Klang at Nationaltheater Mannheim

The spheres of beautiful art and the real world crash into each another - and repel each other. The composer Fritz has a siren-like sound in his head, one that he must follow traveling through the world. He leaves behind his love Grete. Her father arranges her to be married to the restaurant keeper. The girl escapes from her parent’s house and follows after Fritz. Ten years later they find each other again in a brothel, when they are taking part in a competition: who ever can touch Grete’s heart most effectively and most deeply with a song will win her. When Fritz arrives it is clear for Grete who the winner of this competition will be. But when the artist realizes where he is and whom Grete has become, he pushes his former love away from himself in horror. A few years later they meet again. The streetwalking prostitute Grete is cast out of society and the opera composer Fritz is a failure. Critically ill, Fritz finally realizes that he is himself to blame for losing his happiness and begins to desire Grete again. In her arms he hears the distant sound one last time - stronger than ever before.

For Franz Schreker, music itself stands at the center of his opera, for which he wrote the libretto himself. Music is the story’s driving force and a scenic stylistic device. Through a combination of compositional techniques, an oscillating blend of different sound worlds is created. Moments are determined by acoustic realities such as noise from a bar or dance music from that time period belong to the sound world as well as music theater dramaturgy devices such as the »distant sound« that comes from another world.