Das weite Land

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1030 Wien

 

At the beginning of Schnitzler's social panorama, the music falls silent: a pianist who was visiting the villa of the light bulb manufacturer Friedrich Hofreiter and his wife Genia shoots himself. The reason for this gives rise to speculation. It is believed that Hofreiter encouraged the young musician to take his own life after he found out about his alleged affair with Genia. But Hofreiter claims he had no problem with an affair. On the contrary: the “maker” and “founder” of serial production is practically asking Genia to cheat. In his notes, Schnitzler, the doctor and diagnostician of his time, outlines the further course of events in short, precise sentences: “His wife becomes horrifying and deadly to him. He can no longer own her. He’s finally going crazy.”

With a sharp eye, Schnitzler dissects a society whose drive for expansion and addiction to pleasure are paramount: friendships serve business relationships and hotel chains are set up in the bare rocky landscape of the Dolomites to satisfy erotic desires. Hofreiter's light bulbs seem like an ironic commentary on a supposedly enlightened and bright world. The conversations of privileged society about affairs and love adventures become seismographs of a catastrophe that can no longer be stopped.

 

(Source: burgtheater.at)