Der singende Teufel

Up until far into the 1920s, Franz Schreker was the only opera composer in the German-language region whose numbers of performances kept pace with those of Richard Strauss. And: Schreker was a favourite with critics.

This status started to crumble with the 1924 world premiere of IRRELOHE in Cologne. Fussy reviews indicated a change of perception, even though Schreker had not deviated from his chosen and – up until this point – celebrated path in any way. Put bluntly: Schreker was no longer en vogue and his publishers in Vienna, Universal Edition, no longer gave him their unconditional support. And the increasingly strengthening National Socialists did all they could to turn opinions against him. 

Thus, conditions could hardly have been less favourable when his most extensive opera along with (DIE GEZEICHNETEN) saw its world premiere at Berliner Staatsoper on 10 December 1928, conducted by Erich Kleiber: DER SINGENDE TEUFEL was a flop. There were early rioting SA-hordes in the audience who can be presumed to contribute significantly to the work’s failure. For later productions outside the capital, the publishers demanded that their former top act make more and more cuts, until nothing but a truncated version of the work remained and the arc that it was intended to present became impossible.

After 1933, Schreker’s works were banned in Germany and also vanished from international programmes. Only very haltingly, initially through several radio productions in the 1940s to 1960s, Franz Schreker returned to public awareness and to opera stages. However, DER SINGENDE TEUFEL in its original version continues to lead a shadowy existence to this day.