A Solo Performance by Horst Maria Merz
Nonconformist, anarchistic, musically brilliant: With his subtle, often pitch-black humor, singer, composer, poet, and musical cabaret artist Georg Kreisler ranks among the most significant German-language satirists. Horst Maria Merz dedicates an evening at the Kleines Haus to him that is as entertaining as it is multifaceted. Under the title “Weil ich unmusikalisch bin” (Because I’m Tone-Deaf), he has put together a cheeky and charming solo program, inviting the audience on a dazzling ride through musical highs and cabaret lows, featuring famous chansons and wicked, surreal, Dadaist songs, as well as poems and texts by this unconventional artist.
Kreisler’s sarcastic view of the world is no coincidence: As the son of a Jewish Viennese family, he was forced to flee to the United States to escape National Socialism after the “Anschluss” of Austria in 1938. After the war, he worked briefly as an interpreter in Germany, then tried to establish himself as a musician in Hollywood and New York, and returned to Vienna in 1955. He later lived in Berlin, Munich, and Basel, among other places, before finding his final home in Salzburg. His experiences of exile, homelessness, and social exclusion are reflected in his work, as are his irrepressible wit and his penchant for provocation.
