A pop opera by Johannes Hofmann
Marianne, a waitress, is engaged to Oskar, who earns his living as an assistant cook. She faces a presumably joyless future on a well-trodden path. When Marianne meets Alfred, a charming and easy-going gambler, her longing for a different, more fulfilling, free life breaks through. She leaves everything behind, her fiancé and her father. Soon after, now the mother of a small child, she is abandoned by Alfred. In order to survive somehow, Marianne takes a job in the red-light district – where she will cross paths with the men again.
In Ödön von Horváth's work, money and love are closely intertwined in a self-righteous male society whose rules relentlessly discipline individuals. Tom Kühnel and Johannes Hofmann draw on Horváth's numerous musical references and transform the material into a pop opera: all dialogues and lyrics are sung.
