Antigone oder die Stadt is an opera in two acts, written in collaboration by composer Georg Katzer and librettist Gerhard Müller. They based it on Antigone, the play by Sophocles. Conceived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1988 as a comment of the East German system, the opera premiered, after German reunification, at the Komische Oper Berlin on 19 November 1991, staged by Harry Kupfer and conducted by Jörg-Peter Weigle.
The composer
Georg Katzer was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music in the German Democratic Republic and the founder of the first electronic-music studio in the GDR. He held leading positions in music organisations, first in the East, then in the united Germany, and received many awards, including the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Music Authors' Prize.
Georg Katzer