Lulu (opera)

Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist (1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1903) by Berg himself.

Conception and composition

Berg first saw Die Büchse der Pandora in 1905 in a production by Karl Kraus, but did not begin work on his opera until 1929, after he had completed his other opera, Wozzeck. He worked steadily on the score until 1935, when the death of Manon Gropius, the daughter of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, prompted him to break off work to write his Violin Concerto.

Related Topics:
1905 - Karl Kraus - 1929 - Wozzeck - 1935 - Walter Gropius - Alma Mahler - Violin Concerto

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Berg completed the violin concerto swiftly, but the time he spent on that meant he was unable to complete the opera before his death later in 1935 – he had completed the work up to bar 268 of Act III, Scene 1, leaving the rest of the work in short score with indications of instrumentation for much of it.

Related Topics:
Short score - Instrumentation

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The opera was first performed in an incomplete form in 1937. Erwin Stein made a vocal score of the whole of Act III following Berg's death, and Helene Berg, Alban's widow, approached Arnold Schoenberg to complete the orchestration. Schoenberg at first accepted, but upon being sent copies of Berg's sketches he changed his mind, saying that it would be a more time-consuming task than he had thought. Helene subsequently forbade anybody else completing the opera, and for over forty years only the first two acts could be given complete, sometimes with parts of Berg's Lulu Suite played in place of Act III.

Related Topics:
1937 - Erwin Stein - Arnold Schoenberg - Lulu Suite

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Helene's death in 1976 paved the way for a new completed version to be made by Friedrich Cerha. This version was published in 1979 and premiered on February 24 of the same year at the Paris Opera.

Related Topics:
1976 - Friedrich Cerha - 1979 - February 24 - Paris Opera

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