Omer Meir Wellber conducts: KaiserRequiem at the Volksoper Wien on January 25

Omer Meir Wellber's own creation at the Volksoper Vienna:
The KaiserRequiem

On January 25, 2025, Omer Meir Wellber will conduct the premiere of the new production of the KaiserRequiem: The KaiserRequiem is Omer Meir Wellber's own creation and combines Viktor Ullmann's chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis with Mozart's Requiem. Omer Meir Wellber allows the two very different works to merge musically and finds a thematic parallel in the central role of death: Mozart was only able to complete the Requiem up to the Lacrimosa before he died. A tragic parallel can be found in the casting of Ullmann's opera, which he created in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943/44: the only performer who survived the concentration camp was the singer who played the role of Death. But alongside all the ambivalence, the theme of hope also runs through Ullmann's work and alongside fundamental humanistic ideas, which Omer Meir Wellber sees as a reference to reality and a response to current world events.

“Viktor Ullmann composed the opera The Emperor of Atlantis with many biographical references under the oppressive conditions of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. But while working on the KaiserRequiem, I realized that it also has a lot to do with our reality. With what is happening or could happen in the world today,” says Omer Meir Wellber.

The KaiserRequiem unites these works in an interdisciplinary dialog in collaboration with Andreas Heise (direction and choreography) and the Vienna State Ballet.

More info on volksoper.at

January 25, Vienna, Volksoper

Viktor Ullmann: The Emperor of Atlantis / Mozart: Requiem in D minor KV 626
Emperor Requiem

Andreas Heise - choreography and direction
Orchestra of the Volksoper Vienna
Vienna State Ballet
Death / The Loudspeaker / Bass - Josef Wagner
Emperor Overall - Daniel Schmutzhard
Harlequin - Seiyoung Kim
A Soldier / Tenor - JunHo You
The Drummer / The Loudspeaker / Alto - Wallis Giunta
Bubikopf / Soprano - Rebecca Nelsen

Further performances on January 27, February 2, 5, 8 & 26, March 3

At the end of 2024, Omer Meir Wellber conducted Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Teatro Massimo and the world premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's new opera Alma at the Volksoper Wien - both productions were a great success. From September 2025, Omer Meir Wellber will begin his tenure as General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor in London, Paris, Leipzig, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, among others.

His next concert engagements will take him to Wroclaw to the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic with Piotr Anderszewski (31.1.), to London to the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider (1.3.), to the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig (26.-29.3.), to the Orchestre de Paris (7. .8.5.) and to the Opera di Roma with Bizet's Carmen (21.-28.6.).

omermeirwellber.com