The Blond Ghost of Kurfürstendamm by Wolfgang Böhmer (Music) and Peter Lund (Book/Lyrics).
Again from 4 October, 2018 | with English subtitles
Stella is 20 years old when Hitler decrees that Berlin is to be finally made “free from Jews”. Stella is blond and young and beautiful and wants to become a singer, over there, in the United States of America. Or a film star, like Marlene Dietrich. But the Goldschlag family does not receive a visa. Instead of her dream of a big career, Stella gets a yellow star. Stella hates this star as much as she hates being Jewish. And ultimately, Stella joins an underground movement. Like 8,000 other desperate Berlin Jews.
Stella is 35 years old when she stand trial in court for crimes against humanity in the new, young Federal Republic of Germany. She is charged with uncovering over 300 people in hiding while in the service of the Gestapo, sending them on their way to certain death. The German public went head over heels in its indignation over this “Jewish betrayer of the people” who delivered people of her own faith into the hands of the National Socialists. But no one knows what really happened. And Stella keeps her silence…
Stella Goldschlag had everything that was necessary to achieve a great career in the 20th century: blindingly good looks, the required talent and drive as well as that certain amount of ruthlessness that every true star has to have. But Stella Goldschlag was Jewish. And worse still: She claimed to not want to be Jewish. Ultimately, Stella’s wish for fame came true in the most horrible way imaginable.
All of Berlin knows the most efficient catcher of the Gestapo, the infamous “blond ghost of Kurfürstendamm”! Stella Goldschlag’s biography is a very German career. STELLA is thus also a very German piece of music theater, which serves itself from our musical past in a gleefully evil manner. The soundtrack of this UFA film that was never filmed ranges from late Romanticism to chanson, from Arnold Schönberg to 1930s pop.
With a book by Peter Lund, congenially set to music by Wolfgang Böhmer and terrifically staged for the first time at Neuköllner Oper by Martin G. Berger. And lest we forget: Frederike Haas in the title role, who started her career at Neuköllner Oper as Marika Rökk and, after a detour to London’s West End, has returned, after BabyTalk, to hopefully successfully launch another German musical.
Stage Director: Martin G. Berger | Musical Director: Hans-Peter Kirchberg, Tobias Bartholmeß | Stage Design/Costumes: Sarah-Katharina Karl | Dramaturgy: Carola Cohen-Friedlaender | Choreografie: Marie-Christin Zeisset | Video: Roman Rehor
Featuring: Jörn-Felix Alt, Frederike Haas, Alen Hodzovic, Isabella Köpke, Victor Petitjean, Markus Schöttl, David Schroeder, Dennis Weißert
Von Moment zu Moment
Über- und Weiterleben im Alltagslabyrinth des Dritten Reiches
Ein Rollen-Spiel mit Frederike Haas, Markus Schöttl und einem Radioapparat.
Gastspiel in der Neuköllner Oper am 18. und 22. Oktober 2018
