The title is inspired by the epic drama The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus. Published in
full in 1922 its author ridicules the interconnected ills of modernity that he saw as fueling
the war machine (nationalism capitalism unbridled technology militarism journalistic
unscrupulousness) as well as the Viennese cultural scene of the time. The drama bears chilling
parallels to our world in 2020. The goal of the anthology which includes some 100 essays is
to consider the relevance of opera in today's dystopian world and to look to possible
developments in the genre in the foreseeable future. The writers include opera professionals:
singers directors and conductors as well as creative minds from other fields like
philosophers artists film directors and actors. The book features an iconography of original
works by famous artists in particular those of the renowned stage designer Richard Peduzzi.
Authors include: Marina Abramovic Laurie Anderson Cecilia Bartoli Georg Baselitz George
Benjamin Robert Carsen Amira Casar Martin Crimp Peter Gelb Markus Hinterhauser Mariss
Jansons Philippe Jordan Jonas Kaufmann William Kentridge Christian Lacroix Daniel
Libeskind Christa Ludwig Katie Mitchell Jonathan Meese Riccardo Muti Shirin Neshat
Hermann Nitsch Hans Ulrich Obrist Richard Peduzzi Denis Podalydès Thaddaeus Ropac Bogdan
Roscic Tilda Swinton Keith Warner Robert Wilson.
