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Petropolis, 22 February 1942. Writer Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte are having a chat in their favourite café. Far from their “spiritual homeland Europe”, the Austrian couple are preparing for another departure: a goodbye that will shake up and divide the intellectual and literary world, while also sealing the fate of these two lonely souls. “Of their own will and in clear mind”, they decide to commit suicide together.
Belgian composer Harold Noben (Bovary) has dedicated a chamber opera for mezzo, tenor and piano quartet to these tragic final days: À l’extrême bord du monde (On the Far Edge of the World), with a libretto by Jacques De Decker. Premiered in 2020 at La Monnaie, we are delighted to be reviving the work in a concert version, with musicians from the La Monnaie Orchestra, as well as MM Laureate Marie-Juliette Ghazarian in the role of Lotte Zweig and Valentin Thill, who created the role of Stefan Zweig.