In virtue of…

The performance opens at the UN, followed by a transfer / intermission to proceed at the Comédie de Genève

With The Emperor of Atlantis preceded by In Virtue of…, Belgian-Luxembourg director Stéphane Ghislain Roussel presents an involved opera diptych representing a veritable voyage through time and space. Two strikingly topical plays, set in two of Geneva’s international and cultural centres, offering an evening of historical and political reflection.

As the first part, young composer Eugen Birman’s In Virtue of… will echo around the Assembly Hall of the UN Palais des Nations – the ideal setting for this work for baritone,

instrumental ensemble and live electronics which questions the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights in light of the rise of extremism around the world.

Then it’s on to the Comédie de Genève for the second part, Viktor Ullman’s chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis, composed in 1943 at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The Emperor Overall, who declares war against everyone and in doing so provokes Death into going on strike, is performed by Michel de Souza – the soloist who speaks in the first part – as if he were the same character, displaced in time. And thus the diptych makes full sense: are there only a few steps between the turmoil of democracy and the drift towards authoritarianism?

Tickets from CHF 20.-