Short introduction Lass uns die Welt Vergessen – Volksoper 1938

Director Theu Boermans: „We are in the year 1938 at the Volksoper, where rehearsals are underway for the premiere of„Gruß und Kuss aus der Wachau“ by great lyricists and composers of that time: Fritz Löhner-Beda, Hugo Wiener, and Jara Beneš, and with great stars from the era such as Hulda Gerin, Fritz Immhoff, and Viktor Flemming.
The premiere is just a few weeks away. But what if everything falls apart? When everything is under great pressure, when Nazi Germany annexes Austria, and all the Jewish members of the Volksoper are no longer allowed to work? What should they do? Escape? Go into hiding? Stay? And what should their colleagues do? Show solidarity? Or continue working?“ 

Conductor Keren Kagarlitsky: „In our production, we have three different musical worlds: The first musical world accompanies the scenes in the theater, in which the musicians and singers prepare a new operetta. In these scenes, we perform the joyful and humorous music from „Gruß und Kuss aus der Wachau“. Unfortunately, there is no orchestral material of this operetta, so I have reorchestrated the piano score.
The second musical world accompanies the scenes from the artists' private lives. In these scenes, we play music that was forbidden at the time, by Jewish composers such as Arnold Schönberg, Gustav Mahler, and Viktor Ullmann. The dissonance between these two worlds is so significant, and it quickly became clear to me that I also had to write my own music for this production, to merge these two worlds.“ 

Director Theu Boermans: „The cheerful operetta world collides with the harsh political reality. In „Lass uns die Welt vergessen“ we revive the magnificent art of operetta while simultaneously reminding of what happened to these predominantly Jewish artists. Today's ensemble members portray their counterparts from the past. Based on a true story, we are telling about art in difficult times of crisis. And at the same time we ask ourselves questions: How should one behave in such difficult times? And what would you do?“