Music

New Production of “Jonny spielt auf” by Ernst Krenek

A new production of the Austrian composer Ernst Krenek’s opera “Jonny spielt auf” was staged on the 11th December, 2013 at the Salzburger Landestheater. Andreas Gergen was the stage director, while Adrian Kelly conducted the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg.
Within days of its world premiere (10.02.1927), “Jonny spielt auf” had become a “succes de scandale” among critics and a box-office sensation with the public: in the 1927-1928 season alone, it was given 421 times in 45 different cities. Before long, productions were scheduled in virtually every opera house in Germany. The runs in Vienna and Berlin alone exceeded fifty performances, an unheard-of phenomenon that dwarfed the success of new operas by Puccini and Strauss.

The plot hinges on a valuable violin that changes hands several times in the course of the opera, whether by theft or misplacement, and eventually passes, significantly, from a European concert virtuoso to a black-American dance-band musician.

More information here

The music rights and the material of “Jonny spielt auf” are available by THE ARTBASSADOR for Greece and Cyprus, on behalf of UNIVERSAL EDITION.