2011 Next Wave Festival NOV 2011 Donald Baechler, Red + Blue Rose (detail), 2011 BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor Published by: BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, The Infernal Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Vice Chairman of the Board Comedy: Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Joseph V. Melillo, Confessions of Executive Producer a serial killer BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Nov 17—19, 2011 at 7:30pm; Nov 19 at 2pm Approximate running time: one hour and 45 minutes, no intermission A Musikkonzept production Written and directed by Michael Sturminger Music direction and concept by Martin Haselböck Based on idea by Birgit Hutter and Martin Haselböck BAM 2011 Next Wave Festival sponsor Featuring Orchester Wiener Akademie John Malkovich actor Marie Arnet soprano Kirsten Blaise soprano Louise Fribo soprano Leadership support for the Next Wave Festival provided by the Ford Foundation. Martene Grimson soprano Costume design by Birgit Hutter DeWitt Stern is the leadership sponsor for The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a serial killer. Endowment funding has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Opera and Music-Theater. Major support for theater at BAM provided by The Shubert Foundation, Inc. and The SHS Foundation. The Infernal Comedy MUSIC Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–87) Don Juan (1761) “L’enfer”—Chaconne Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805) Symphony in D minor, G506 “La casa del diavolo” (pub. 1771) —Chaconne Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Ottone in Villa (1713) “Sposa son disprezzata” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) “Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio” K418 (1783) Christoph Willibald Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) “Ballo grazioso” Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) “Ah! perfido” Op. 65 (1795–6) Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) “Berenice che fai” Hob. XXIVa / 10 (1795) Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) “Ah, se Edmondo fosse l’uccisor!” (1815) (Insert aria for Méhul’s Helena) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart “Ah, lo previdi” K272 (1777) The Infernal Comedy Photo by Nathalie Bauer Opera or music drama—call it what you will— Why be surprised, then, that Michael Sturminger has always reveled in transgressions of the most chose to make a piece of music theater for John shocking kind. Regicide, patricide, matricide, Malkovich out of the life and—as will soon be fratricide, sororicide, the premeditated murder clear—death of the Austrian serial killer Jack of partners, children, and best friends, whole Unterweger? Unterweger was convicted of cities and tribes put to the sword: these have murdering Margaret Schäfer in 1974. He had been raw meat and rough drink to librettists strangled her with her own underwear and he andcomposers since the Florentine Camerata was given a life sentence, which under Austrian first began to experiment with monodic music law meant 25 years —15 in prison and then 10 drama. Audiences have thrilled to the palpable years on parole. While in jail, Unterweger began presence of evil on stage for over four centuries. to write poetry and short stories, plays, and even Indeed, there’s an argument worth pursuing an autobiography. Impressed by his literary gifts, that, as the tide of Christian faith receded in the a number of Austrian intellectuals took up the 19th century, it was in the opera house that prisoner’s case, including the 2004 Nobel laure- men and women who had lost or jettisoned ate for literature Elfriede Jelinek. They petitioned their faith now encountered the absolutes of for a pardon, arguing that the murderer was now good and evil. Iago’s credo in Verdi’s Otello, for reformed and properly rehabilitated. Eventually example, with that chilling word “nulla” at the Unterweger was released, in May 1990, having end; or Hagen in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung served his 15 years in jail. Within no time at inciting Gunther and Brünnhilde to acquiesce all he became a national celebrity, with frequent to the murder of Siegfried. appearances on Austrian television where, among other matters, he would argue the case for the rehabilitation of criminals based on his own experiences. The Infernal Comedy What no one knew was that Unterweger was Michael Sturminger, author and stage director anything but a reformed character. In the year of The Infernal Comedy, argues that the lies go after his release he killed a total of six prostitutes far beyond a killer’s smile; that Austria itself has in Austria. And when a magazine commissioned never owned up to the truth about Jack Unterwe- him to write about crime in Los Angeles, and ger. “His name was constantly in the Austrian in particular to explore the different attitudes on media, but no one seemed particularly interested either side of the Atlantic to the issue of prostitu- in finding out the truth about him. The press tion, Unterweger grasped the opportunity to overlooked much because they relied on things murder three Californian prostitutes. Sherri Ann that Unterweger himself had said in interviews or Long, Shannon Exley, and Irene Rodriguez were had written about himself, at least half of which all beaten, sexually assaulted, and then strangled were not true. So the topic of what could be the with their own brassieres—Unterweger’s signa- truth, and what should be the truth about this ture way of killing his victims. person fascinated me.” In time, the Austrian police made four from two At one point in his libretto Sturminger, speaking plus two. (To be fair, Jack Unterweger was a through the character of Unterweger, tells us prominent celebrity who was rarely out of the that even Jack’s Wikipedia entry peddles fiction public eye and we are at our most credulous in rather than truth about his background. For John the face of fame.) But when the police called to Malkovich these lies, or half-truths, began at the arrest him, Unterweger had fled. It was the FBI very beginning. “The women in Unterweger’s who tracked him down, in Florida, and when life were victims in some way or other... even his he was returned to Austria the murderer-turned- own mother. He made it up that she was a Vien- literatus was charged with the 11 murders. He nese prostitute when in fact nothing could have was found guilty of nine crimes by a majority been further from the truth. She was just a very jury and was again sentenced to life imprison- young girl, really a kind of country bumpkin, who ment but this time without parole. Returned to got pregnant by an American GI who went back prison, Jack Unterweger took his own life: on home a few weeks later without ever knowing June 29, 1994 he hanged himself with a rope about his unborn son.” he had made from his shoelaces and the cord from his tracksuit trousers. It was reported that As Sturminger says, Jack Unterweger made the knot was the same type he had used to people believe in him. “It’s fascinating to see strangle his victims. that a lot of the women he was involved with didn’t believe he was guilty even after the trial So how did Unterweger avoid detection? Charm, and [having heard] all the evidence against him says John Malkovich, who takes the part of the —and that includes his young girlfriend. They serial killer in The Infernal Comedy. “I saw him couldn’t accept that the person they knew had more than once on television. He became quite a killed all these women. He must have been a celebrity here in Vienna and hung out at a café, very charming and interesting and lovely man. It about five minutes’ walk from where I am now. was a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde situation.” He was quite the man about town at the time. If What, then, is the truth that Sturminger puts on you visit that café where he used to go you can stage about the serial killer? “It’s a cynical story talk to people who will tell you that he was nice about a man who is tricking the whole world. and funny and always had a smile on his face. At the same time it’s a story of a person who In retrospect, and given the events of his life, we believes he can do anything because no one un- should remember one of the things that he wrote derstands who he really is.” To which Malkovich —that the first thing he had learnt was to smile adds, “I think that in Judeo-Christian society the and that the smile was already a lie.” notion of redemption is so powerful and neces- sary that we’d all like to believe that we could be redeemed, even for things that don’t measure at The Infernal Comedy all on the same scale as Unterweger’s crimes. So delio. Weber uses the same device in the “Wolf’s it’s understandable that someone should present Glen” scene in Der Freischütz. Music raises the themselves as a model prisoner, one who has emotional temperature of the drama, hinting at learnt to write and has been rehabilitated, and so things that cannot be said. on. On that level I think The Infernal Comedy is about the notion that because we believe some- Then there are two sopranos on stage, perform- thing, it must be true. And that what we believe ing arias by Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, is borne out by the facts. It’s something that you and Weber. They depict heroines from the have to be careful of: philosophies and ideologies Baroque and Classical periods singing of their scare me.” grief and torment, their fury and their resigna- tion—the emotional red meat of opera and the Put another way, The Infernal Comedy would concert aria.