Idiot

The Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who personally suffered under the regimes of both Hitler and Stalin, was for many decades one of the unjustly forgotten composers of the 20th century. He left behind a considerable oeuvre which has enjoyed a renewed interest in recent years. He is today considered one of the most important composers of the Soviet Union alongside Shostakovich and Prokofiev. The Idiot, based on the novel of the same title by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, is Weinberg's final opera. It was written during the mid-1980s. This live recording from the Mannheim National Theatre in 2014 documents the production with which Weinberg's Idiot received its world premiere one year previously in Mannheim, unanimously celebrated by audiences and critics alike. The renowned specialists' journal Die Opernwelt even named the production World premiere of the year.