Boehm

Venue: DT Stage - Conductors are fascinating people: Musically of the highest sensitivity, they command huge orchestras as god-like sole rulers. They must have both sensitivity and leadership and are sometimes tyrannical, autocratic despots whose emotions or finger pointing are able to set hundreds of people in motion. Just like Karl Böhm, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. There are almost 87 years of life between birth and burial, which are marked by a deep conflict: On the one hand, Böhm was a great artist, on the other hand, he was a person who joined forces with National Socialism in order to advance his career.

Through Hitler's intercession, Böhm was appointed to the Semper Opera in Dresden in 1934 to succeed the conductor Fritz Busch, whom the Nazi regime had forced to resign and emigrate. In 1943, in the midst of the Second World War, Böhm became director of the Vienna State Opera. In 1945, the Allied occupying authorities removed him from the office of director due to too close proximity to the Nazi regime and banned him from performing. After the end of the occupation period until 1956, he was then entrusted with this office a second time.

In Böhm, the gifted puppeteer and puppet maker Nikolaus Habjan once again deals with the darkest chapter of European history, which also haunts him in other plays, such as in F. Zawrel — hereditary and socially inferior. Böhm was written by Viennese author Paulus Hochgatterer, who wrote the roles for Nikolaus Habjan and his puppets.