Rosse - Pagliacci

Two men, two worlds. Both are losing the grip, as their realities start to crumble. In Winfried Zillig’s rarely performed one-act play Rosse, stable boy Franz is thrown off course when his farmer's wife whispers a rumour in his ear: the beloved horses could soon be replaced by machines. As an agricultural machinery dealer confirms this rumour, Franz kills him in rage. But also this outbreak doesn’t help. Deeply indesperate, Franz chooses to end his life. –Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci is also about offence that leads to a tragedy. Canio, leader of a group of actors, must acknowledge that the betrayal of his wife Nedda is not played but bitter truth. On the stage, jealousy turns into murder- comedy’s over.

Winfried Zillig (1905-1963), born in Würzburg, was a significant composer, music theorist and conductor in the first half of the 20th century. As master student of Arnold Schönberg he connected the techniques of the New Viennese School on the way to twelve-tone music with his own dramatic handwriting. His first opera Rosse (after the drama written by Richard Billinger) premiered in Düsseldorf in 1933. An expressive chamber play about loneliness and the disruption of the soul within a changing rural world. In contrast, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892), presenting a powerful blend of fiction and reality, is a prime example of the Italian Verismo.

In the run-up to the premiere of the double opera evening, the Mainfranken Theatre will also host a symposium that will attempt to critically assess the composer and conductor Winfried Zillig on the one hand, and on the other hand will scientifically examine Winfried Zillig as a person and his role and function in the Nazi state.