Madness and Redemption

One of the first operas to be cancelled in the earliest days of the Covid pandemic was the Deutsche Oper’s new production of Rued Langgaard’s Antikrist. It was, in some ways, a greater disappointment than the postponement of their new Ring cycle: while there was no chance of the Ring being lost in the shuffle of future season scheduling, it seemed entirely possible that Berlin audiences might be deprived of their chance to experience Langgaard’s sole work for the stage. Fortunately Antikrist was not forgotten and, at the end of January it had its belated première, nearly two years after its originally scheduled date; and while Ersan Mondtag’s visually provocative staging often seemed too eager to steal the spotlight, it was the majesty of Langgaard’s unique score that made for a memorable, often captivating evening. 

Antikrist was Langgaard…