THE END OF THE WORLD

Unrest reigns in outer space: at a planetary council, it is decided that humanity is harmful to the Earth and that the planet must therefore be "cured" of it. A comet is dispatched to destroy the Earth. Only one human recognises the impending danger and tries to avert the catastrophe, but everywhere meets resistance and wilful blindness.

The play by the Austrian-Jewish writer Jura Soyfer (1912-1938), on which this opera is based, premiered in 1936 and was created in the shadow of the looming catastrophe of National Socialism and the Holocaust. Written in the spirit of political cabaret, it inspired composer Wilhelm Zobl to write his first full-length opera, which goes along with the musical tradition of THE THREEPENNY OPERA by Brecht and Weill.

Wilhelm Zobl (1950-1991), an Austrian pioneer of electronic music and an intellectual successor to Hanns Eisler, worked closely with Elfriede Jelinek in Vienna and understood his art as a form of social engagement. His opera received its world premiere at the Vienna Festival in 1984 and now, 43 years later, has its German premiere at Theater Bonn.