Kdokoli

The famous composition by the early 20th-century writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) goes much further back in time: it is a treatment of the English Everyman, a moral from the 15th century. The medieval theme was clothed by the Austrian poet five hundred years later in a language coloured by ancient German. He transformed the original English moralistic dialogue of a dying man with the characters of Death, God, Good Works, Religion, Knowledge, etc., into an audience-appealing drama about a profligate man. The monologue of the personified Mammon, the dialogues of the rich and the poor very simultaneously discuss the vices of our modern world. And the play is also a profound reflection on the experience of death. Its deep and dark humour also enticed the musicians to work on it. Already in 1916, Jean Sibelius wrote incidental music for it, and the six monologues were also set by the eminent Swiss composer Frank Martin. The play annually opens the famous Salzburg Festival in Austria, and in Germany it is performed in the Berliner Dom. Its fame brought it to the Czech stage in the 1930s.

Czech edition