My favourite animal is winter/Episode 1

The debut novel by Styrian Ingeborg Bachmann Prize winner Ferdinand Schmalz is set to music by Carinthian musician and composer Lukas Kranzelbinder, directed by Viennese Alexander Charim and brought to scenic life by singers from Oper Graz, guest actors and figureheads of the ‘Neues Wienerlied” (New Viennese Song) such as Klemens Lendl (Die Strottern) and Wolfgang Vincenz Wizlsperger (Kollegium Kalksburg). An operetta series in five parts, whose episodes will carve their way through the opera by means of different venues. Curtain up for the operetta of the 21st century!

In My favourite animal is winter, Ferdinand Schmalz takes his readers on an abysmal journey through Austrian society illustrating his bizarre and clever wit, which provided the perfect source for a modern operetta. Often underestimated as shallow entertainment, operetta was a socially critical, subversive genre until it was curtailed by National Socialist cultural policy and is now about to be resurrected in a new form.

Schmalz’s novel is both a crime story and a social satire. Frozen food salesman Franz Schlicht is tasked with disposing of the body of his cancer-stricken customer Doctor Schauer after committing suicide in a freezer. When Schlicht wants to carry out the task, however, the dead body has disappeared without a trace. Therefore, Schlicht sets off in search of the frozen corpse, encountering all kinds of strange characters along the way.

The operetta series that was adapted by Schmalz himself will be performed in five parts spanning two seasons at different venues of Oper Graz. Beginning with the studio stage, it’ll make its way through the opera house until it ultimately arriving at its centrepiece, the main auditorium, in which the series finale will take place in the following season. Lukas Kranzelbinder, known for founding the jazz formation ‘Shake Stew’, composes beyond the boundaries of clear stylistic categorisation and gives the new operetta its very own 21st century sound. The Viennese director Alexander Charim, who is a seasoned expert when it comes to unusual venues, completes the Austrian trio.

Age recommendation: 14+