Der Protagonist

in original version with Italian surtitles
La Fenice staging

In the artistically prolific years of the Weimar Republic, the creative couple Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht revolutionised theatre: musical theatre in particular. Following the current of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) – which addressed current issues and subjects with a political and social background –, Weil made his debut in musical theatre, which took place with Der Protagonist (world première 1926). This is a Literaturoper, that is, a work, the verbal text of which coincides, totally or almost, with the corresponding literary source – in this case the homonymous pièce by Georg Kaiser (published in 1920), which constitutes, practically unchanged, the libretto. Set in Shakespearean England, the single act is an example of theatre in theatre. A company of itinerant actors is rehearsing a show, commissioned by the local Duke. Initially conceived as a comic pantomime, the show is then transformed – by the will of the nobleman – into a play of a more serious nature. But the rehearsal of this second version of the pantomime is tragically interrupted: the Protagonist commits a murder, which takes place in “real” life. It is impossible not to grasp in this metatheatre, in this coexistence of farce and tragedy, certain similarities with Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos.