Cast & Info

STORY

A cappella operetta

Composer // Oscar Strasnoy

Libretto // Galin Stoev and Oscar Strasnoy

(based on texts by Witold Gombrowicz)

Vienna premiere

A young man is constantly overwhelmed by himself, his family and his surroundings. In search of refuge and his true self, he goes through all the stages of coming of age: from a barefoot rebellion, a maturity test and a military conscription board, right up to a court conviction. Thus, he dreams himself into his present-day story, in which he shot the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, thereby triggering the First World War. It is with this absurdly narcissistic overestimation of his own abilities that Oscar Strasnoy’s a cappella operetta *Geschichte* takes its course, based on the autobiographical sketches of Witold Gombrowicz, one of the most significant and avant-garde Polish writers and playwrights of the 20th century. The Neue Oper Wien is now staging the work as its Viennese premiere. Advance ticket sales for all five performances have already begun.

Six voices, no instruments

In “Geschichte”, without a single orchestral instrument, six singers transform themselves into an entire, complicated family and, at the same time, into historical figures of global significance – a vocal tour de force that oscillates between family drama and world history, between bitter seriousness and comic exaggeration. Ekaterina Protsenko, Ellen Rose Kelly, Johannes Wieners, Valentino Blasina, Felix Heuser and Harald Hieronymus Hein each take on multiple roles, ranging from an aristocratic family member to the Russian Tsar.

“This operetta demands everything the human voice is capable of from the singers – from recitative to virtuoso coloratura. It is precisely in this reduction to the essentials that the power of the piece lies,” says Anna Sushon, musical director and artistic director of the Neue Oper Wien.

General musical director // Anna Sushon

Production // Taro Morikawa

Set & costumes // Vanessa Pressl

Choreography // Eva Klug

Lighting design // Norbert Chmel

Cast:

Mother, Tsarina // Ekaterina Protsenko-Paulsson

Rena, Tina, Hindenburg // Ellen Rose Kelly

Witold, the Tsar’s secret envoy // Johannes Wieners

Jerzy, Eulenburg // Valentino Blasina

Janusz, Prince Pless // Felix Heuser

Father, Tsar. Emperor Wilhelm II // Harald Hieronymus Hein

Premiere on 16 September 2026 at the MAK, Lecture Hall (Vortragssaal)