Ernst Krenek's beloved opera Kehraus um St. Stephan continues its celebrated revival with another production beginning this month at the Volksoper Vienna directed by Michael and Nora Scheidl and conducted by Gerrit Priessnitz. With three performances this month in Vienna, Kehraus um St. Stephan exposes an unscrupulous society in the autumn of 1918, fraught with political cynicism, social complacency, unbridled superficiality and excessive greed. Krenek relates the death dance of the recently foundered Danube Monarchy with a (deceiving) flicker of hope that perhaps love and inner values may pervade after all. The composer was confident in the ability of art to play a key role in the burning questions of daily life and political affairs.

The production, which also took the stage at the Bregenz Festival and Luzerner Theater in 2008, earned the composer the posthumous honor of Opernwelt magazine's Rediscovery of the Year for 2009.

Visit www.universaledition.com and www.baerenreiter.com for more on the life and music of Ernst Krenek.

For more on the production, visit www.volksoper.at.

Ernst Krenek
Kehraus um St. Stephan (1930)
satire with music in two acts (19 scenes)
text (Ger) by Ernst Krenek
for soprano, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 3 tenors, 6 baritones and SATB chorus
2(2pic).2(1.ca).4(Ebcl).2(2.cbsn)-2.2.2.1-timp.3perc-gtr.mand-pno.harm-str
full evening