Opera based on a true story

Libretto by Tom Holloway

Work commissioned by the MusikTheater an der Wien

How close does a person’s voice bring us to them? A real-life criminal case involving a soldier at a US army base in Australia during World War II is the starting point of the opera Voice Killer that the Czech composer Miroslaw Srnka is writing for the MusikTheater an der Wien. Obsessed by the voice of his mother who used to sing him nursery rhymes, the soldier vainly searched for it among women who happened to cross his path. Three Australian women fell victim to the mentally ill serial killer before he was caught. Srnka and his librettist Tom Holloway, whose operas South Pole, Singularity and Make No Noise received their premieres at the Bayerische Staatsoper, are primarily interested in the women who attracted the murderer’s attention solely on account of their voices. They follow the main character’s schizophrenic stream of consciousness, turning the criminal case into a flow of events in which time periods and locations constantly shift. Each murder triggers a new level of escalation until events start to come thick and fast: arrest, trial and execution all become one and the murderer’s victims become his defence counsels.

In English with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up