Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung at Theater an der Wien

The composer Viktor Ullmann was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 where, with the writer and painter Peter Kien, he created Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Although rehearsals had already been held, the opera, with its obvious references to Hitler and the madness of National Socialism, was never performed. Using allegory, Ullmann shows the senselessness of war: When the megalomaniac Emperor Overall announces the beginning of a war waged by everyone against everyone else, even Death protests and goes on strike. However, this immortality increasingly becomes a curse that can only be lifted by a sacrifice on the part of the emperor himself.