CARDILLAC

About the show

Cardillac cannot bear to part with his works of art. The jeweler must kill anyone who buys jewelry from him. E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella “The Girl from Scuderi”, one of the very first detective stories, served Paul Hindemith as a source. His opera from 1926 is a milestone in the development of music theater. One hundred years after its world premiere in Dresden, the opera house presents Hindemith’s first full-length opera in a new production. By the early 1920s, Hindemith had already secured a prominent, often controversial, position within the younger generation of composers. His early one-act operas such as “Sancta Susanna” and “Murderer, Hope of Women” attracted lasting attention and established his name on opera stages as well, as forerunners of “Cardillac”, the work that earned him a permanent place in the repertoire. Hindemith created a profound artist’s drama that explores the social value of art and artists, ownership and creation, usefulness, ethics, and the limits of art. The production reunites the company with former Zurich General Music Director Fabio Luisi, a passionate advocate of Hindemith’s rhythm-driven, icily shimmering score. The staging is by Kornél Mundruczó, one of today’s most exciting theater and film directors (“Pieces of a Woman”, “Underdog”, among others). Mundruczó reads “Cardillac” as a contemporary thriller, a psychologically charged story of possession, obsession, and power. The evening reflects today’s consumer society, in which the pursuit of material goods, status, and quick thrills plays a central role. Cardillac himself is a psychologically complex figure, a respected artist whose physical attachment to his work and compulsion for control turn him into a thief and a murderer. The visual inspiration for the set comes from real urban locations, from New York’s Diamond District to Antwerp, where gold and diamonds function as “the fuel of wealth”. This glittering world contrasts sharply with the psychological darkness of the drama.