DER BESUCH DER ALTEN DAME

In the organizer's words:

Billionaire Claire Zachanassian returns to her run-down hometown of Güllen to seek revenge: As a young girl she had become pregnant by the merchant Ill, and as a whore she had been driven out of the town. Now she makes the impoverished people of Güllen a gruesome offer: If the villagers kill Ill, they will receive a billion. After the initial shock, the villagers' morale quickly crumbles. Will Claire's cynical plan become reality?

Gottfried von Einem recognized opera material in the "tragic comedy" immediately after its premiere in 1956. It took some time before this idea became a reality, but Friedrich Dürrenmatt eventually even adapted his play as a libretto for von Einem himself. This parable about the amorality of a seemingly decent, but secretly greedy and selfish petty bourgeois society became the composer's most enduring success in von Einem's dense musical portrayal after the successful premiere at the Vienna State Opera in 1971.