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The city of Vienna closes the chamber opera. At the end there are two one-act plays that address the topic of infidelity in very different ways.

June 2, 2026 at 3:58 p.m

from Daniela Tomasovsky

An era is coming to an end: performances have taken place in the chamber opera since 1961, i.e. for 65 years. The hall, originally the ballroom of the Hotel Post am Fleischmarkt, has been part of the Musiktheater an der Wien since 2012. Close to the audience and with young protagonists, it was possible to dare to do what is often not possible on large stages: the first performance of Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” with historical instruments as well as Maurizio Kagel’s “Mare Nostrum” or Korngolds “Silent Serenade”.

The Chamber Opera is now closing. Officially there is talk of a break – but given the current financial situation of the city of Vienna, no one believes that it will ever open again. “I think it’s a shame. It’s a small, protected space, a springboard for young singers. In the chamber opera, the audience expects to be surprised. Having such diversity is also part of Viennese identity,” says director Anna Bernreiter.

She staged the last production at the house: “Lady Magnesia/Twice Alexander” by Mieczysław Weinberg and Bohuslav Martinů. The two one-act plays do not belong to the classic opera repertoire, but surprise with a timeless problem and a lot of slapstick humor. The starting point is the same in both plays: a jealous husband suspects his wife of cheating on him and takes countermeasures. However, these are extremely different. In “Lady Magnesia” the husband takes a dagger and wants to kill his wife.

But a sneeze – Hatschi’s is composed and very funny – thwarts the attack. The man’s courage is gone. “His hatred then turns to the woman’s lover, the servant Adolphus, whom he then poisons,” says the director. The impending death of her lover leads to a turnaround in “Lady Magnesia”: She comes out of her victim role and declares that she now wants to transfer her love from her lover to her husband. The lord now has to deal with fear: love threatens to crush him and become a prison. He is desperately looking for an antidote for the servant. Pieces of lime from the crumbling wall must be believed. They don’t help and only result in the servant petrifying into a statue. The couple’s relationship with each other is also petrified – there is no escape, they will fight each other forever. The music for the absurd plot is incredibly dramatic, so it inevitably becomes funny.

The husband in “Twice Alexander” solves the problem in a completely different way. Instead of picking up a dagger, he picks up a razor and changes his look. As a cousin from America, he puts his wife to the test. Will she cheat on him? Has she already cheated on him with the pushy neighbor who keeps inviting her to “bicycle lessons”? Of course, Armande recognizes her husband quite quickly, and the two use the role play for a new love game. But they are condemned by Alexander’s wall portrait: This decides that the woman must be punished for her infidelity. Alexander himself doesn’t recognize it. After a nightmare sequence, Armande feels liberated. She gets involved with the neighbor. “I’m ready for bicycle lessons now,” she says. The song is a parody about morals. While in “Lady Magnesia” everyone ends up fighting with everyone else, in “Twice Alexander” everyone loves each other. Love is associated with uncertainty, but also with freedom.

“I like to bring the unexpected into the pieces. But with these two pieces so many unexpected things happen that I just let the pieces speak for themselves,” says the director. The superstructure is important to her: the topic of violence, the different ways of dealing with jealousy and dissatisfaction in the relationship. “Especially now, when femicide is unfortunately ubiquitous.” The stage design (Manfred Rainer) and the costumes (Hannah Öllinger) also illustrate the different atmosphere of the plays. Both pieces take place in a salon. In “Lady Magnesia” this is very rigid, there is no entrance and no exit, everything that is found in it is used for murder. It’s completely different with “Twice Alexander”: “The decor is sensual, there’s a lot of skin and body. The conflict resolution here happens through the sensual route,” says Bernreiter.

The music in both pieces is very modern: in Weinberg’s case it is powerful, with strong guidelines and impulses for the action. With Martinů, more lively, more sociable. “His music is perhaps more of a listening habit.” s