„Muss denn in diesem Land immer alles politisch sein?“

Panel discussion and concert

In a dialog with musicologist Holger Noltze and non-fiction author Inge Kloepfer, Kent Nagano looks back on his successful time as General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Philharmonic State Orchestra. What role does opera play today in a democratic urban society and how can it bring people together as an institution and through its art?
This will be followed by music by Ernst Krenek, the political composer par excellence, who in his works, such as his famous one-act opera “The Dictator” (1926) about a power-hungry ruler who initiates a war, has repeatedly reflected on social coexistence.
He also contributed impressive music to the celebrations for the reopening of the Hamburg State Opera after the Second World War: his opera “Pallas Athene weeps”, composed in American exile - a parable on the struggle for democracy.
The event takes place in cooperation with the Hamburg State Opera and the “Opera and Democracy” series of the Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles. It is curated by Thomas Mann Fellow Kai Hinrich Müller and has been performed at various venues since January 2024.