The Good Man of Szechwan

What is actually more exhausting? Being a good person or always playing the bad guy? And doesn't everyone want to be good in the first place? But once again, the circumstances are not like that. Shen Te has to learn this too, because the more she tries to please everyone, the more her good nature is exploited. And so she feels compelled to slip into the role of her unscrupulous cousin Shui Ta, who brusquely rejects all supplicants. But can this be the solution to the problem?

It was Bertolt Brecht who played out this story in his parable The Good Man of Szechwan. Now the composer Cong Su, who won an Oscar for his film music for Bernardo Bertolucci's hit film The Last Emperor, has adapted Brecht's play for the opera stage. Brecht expert and former head of drama in Linz, Stephan Suschke, will return to the Landestheater to stage this world premiere.