Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung: Opera as Political Defiance

Summary

IN VIKTOR ULLMANN'S 1943/44 opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung (The Emperor of Atlantis or Death's Refusal), the tyrannical Kaiser Overall, ruler of Atlantis and other kingdoms, declares a war of all against all. The character Tod (Death), mortally offended by the emperor's presumption that he will serve in this senseless war, refuses to do his job and let people die. When chaos ensues on the battlefields as a result of Tod's refusal, Overall loses his confidence. However, Tod is willing to restore himself to human existence on condition that Overall be the first to die, and the opera ends with Tod leading Overall away.

The act of writing this particular opera under the unimaginable circumstances of life in the Theresienstadt concentration camp is perhaps one of ultimate defiance, and not only because of obvious parallels between the megalomaniacal Kaiser Overall and the equally megalomaniacal Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime of terror. While the opera's libretto is attributed to the politically outspoken and cynical young poet and gifted artist Peter Kien, the extent of his contribution is, in fact, unknown. Parallels in the subject matter between Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung and Ullmann's 1935 opera Der Sturz des Antichrist (The Fall of the Antichrist), a musical adaptation of a play by Albert Steffen (1884–1963), as well as the history of the opera's genesis, suggest that Ullmann is solely responsible for the libretto in the autograph score. Steffen's “dramatische Skizze in drei Akten” (dramatic sketch in three acts) is an illustration of some major anthroposophical tenets with respect to human development, and while Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung does not present itself with the same degree of esoteric exclusivity, anthroposophical implications—however subtle—abound. In fact, I would like to suggest that Ullmann, not known for outspoken political opposition, used his art as a forum to express political defiance through allegory, the often ironic use of numerous literary and musical intertexts, and his (anthroposophically-informed) compositional style—means that would likely have evaded most of the camp's SS officers, but not his fellow prisoners who comprised a significant percentage of the Jewish intelligentsia from Czechoslovakia and other European countries.