The Emperor of Atlantis

A performance of 'The Emperor of Atlantis', Holocaust victim Viktor Ullmann's musical play about war, love, death and revolution in which Death announces his retirement in protest against the inhuman machines of war. Viktor Ullmann, the composer, arrived in the Terezin concentration camp in 1942 and found himself part of an extraordinary outpouring of musical creativity. During its dress rehearsal, the SS closed down the opening production of Atlantis and sent Ullmann and the librettist, Peter Kien, to their deaths in Auschwitz. The opera however, survived and is now considered a masterpiece of this forgotten era.