Stefan and Lotte in Paradise September 20, 2012

Cutting-edge technology and dazzling live performance will bring the café society of 1930s Vienna and the steamy terraces of Brazil to MediaCityUK on 20 September, when the University of Salford hosts a radical new chamber opera celebrating the life of one of 20th Century Europe’s most famous authors.

Commissioned by the University, Stefan and Lotte in Paradise is a free one-hour chamber opera, written by Salford academic and composer Dr Alan Williams and Brazilian composer Dr Marcos Lucas, which chronicles the last few months of the life of Austrian Jewish writer Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte, who both committed suicide in 1942.

At one time the most translated author in the world, Zweig was forced to leave Austria in 1934 soon after the rise to power in Germany of Hitler, living in England and New York before moving to Brazil in 1940.

The libretto for Stefan and Lotte in Paradise was written by prize-winning playwright Philip Goulding and deals with the themes of persecution, migration and exile, while the music includes fragments of Zweig’s collection of scores by Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and many other composers which are now housed at the British Library; Klezmer, an Eastern European Jewish folk music style; and the sounds of Brazil.

Admission: Free, but registration required. To register go to https://supporters.salford.ac.uk/stefanandlotte or call the Events team on 0161 295 5241.