DER WEG DER VERHEISSUNG Theater Chemnitz General Information On June 13th 1999, celebrations for the Kurt Weill Centenery 2000 will open with the German- language premiere of Weill's opera „Der Weg der Verheissung“. An international co-production headed by Chemnitz Municipal Theaters as the opera’s initiators has been awarded the license to produce „Der Weg der Verheissung“ for the first time since its 1937 New York premiere. The Free State of Saxony and the city of Chemnitz will be hosting the opening of „Kurt Weill Year commemorating the composer born on March 2nd 1900. The New York „Kurt Weill Foundation for Music“ based in Weill’s adopted country has taken the centennial as an opportunity for launching a comprehensive revival of Weill’s extensive theater works. The idea for the opera, which portrays the history of the Jews, was first conceived in New York. Meyer Weisgal, the Jewish-American producer, initiated a collaboration between three artists who began working on the project in Berlin in 1934. Max Reinhardt, renowned manager-director of the Deutsche Theater, composer Kurt Weill and dramatist Franz Werfel pianned to create an opera based on Werfel’s play about the Thora. However, the Jewish artists were forced to interrupt their work as they went into exile, and three years elapsed before they could resume it in New York. „Der Weg der Verheissung“ opened at Manhattan Opera House on January 4th 1937, and although it was performed under quite dramatic circumstances, the premiere (produced in English by Max Reinhardt) was highly praised. However, the substantial budget suppiied by Meyer Weisgal, later president of the Chaim Weizman Institute, was quickly consumed by the opera’s huge cast and monumental scenery created by renowned stage designer Norman Bel Geddes - not to mention a bürst water main that caused great damage during rehearsals. Thus, despite its overwhelming success, the opera permanently disappeared from the stage. Therefore „Der Weg der Verheissung“ has also never been produced in the original German version based on the drama by Franz Werfel. There are many reasons - musical, artistic and historical - for reviving this great and important composition at the end of the millennium. Set in a synagogue„,Der Weg der Verheissung“ describes the visions of a Rabbi who reads and re-enacts scenes from the Thora to encourage Jewish refugees and to ultimately prepare them for their future in the Diaspora. Biblical figures from the Old Testament appear in the opera’s four parts: The Patriarchs / Moses / Kings / The Prophets. Thus the piot’s framework is closeiy interconnected with Bible history; both themes culminate on a hopeful note for the joumey into exile. At the time of the premiere, the expatriate Jewish authors already sensed that terrible things were happening in their native country; reality, however, was to exceed even their worst suspicions. The European American Music Co./USA granted us the license for „Der Weg der Verheissung“ under certain conditions to ensure a high international impact. For this reason, close international collaboration is an essential and contractually defined requirement - a condition that matched our intentions as appiicants. The „Kurt Weill Foundation for Music“ corroborated the team of artistic directors as well as the casting of major parts; it has also expressed its special appreciation of the close collaboration between Israeli and American artists. Chemnitz Opera director Michael Heinicke was commissioned with the opera’s production, while the acclaimed American Weill expert GMD John Mauceri will be its musical director. David Sharir, the Israeli artist and stage designer, will create the scenery. After studying original documents and Max Reinhardt’s script at the New York Weill Foundation for Music, Gerhard Müller, the Berlin dramatic advisor (until recently chief dramatic advisor at Leipzig Gewandhaus) has devised a version for an approximately four-hour performance of the even longer original libretto.