Christophorus (oder Die Vision einer Oper) is an opera in a prologue, two acts and epilogue by Franz Schreker with a German-language libretto by the composer.
[1] Schreker's previous opera, Irrelohe, premiered in 1924, had received a lukewarm response, its late-Romanticism being seen as out of step with the newer values of Neoclassicism and Neue Sachlichkeit being explored by a younger generation of composers.
[1] Christophorus was conceived and written partly in response to this new aesthetic and uses the smallest performing forces of any Schreker opera with a reduced orchestra and no chorus.
[1] This, together with the contemporary setting, the use of spoken dialogue and jazz and popular music elements, anticipates important aspects of the "Zeitopern" of the later 1920s as represented by works such as Krenek's Jonny spielt auf (1927) and Weill's Dreigroschenoper (1928).
[1] An early, unrealised scenario for the opera included a plan to incorporate film interludes, foreshadowing the use of the same device in Alban Berg's Lulu (1929-35).
Christophorus: Georg Ahrens, Susanne Bernhard, Jörg Sabrowski, Robert Chafin, Matthias Klein, Bernd Gebhardt, Hans-Jürgen Schöpflin, Simon Pauly, Jennifer Arnold, Kieler Opernchor, Philharmonisches Orchester Kiel, Ulrich Windfuhr, CPO.