Lulu (opera)

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Lulu (1929–35; premiered incomplete 1937, complete 1979) is an opera that Austrian composer Alban Berg created from Frank Wedekind's Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904). Berg used twelve-tone technique amid rising cultural hostility and died having almost finished the opera. Its two acts and finale were staged until Friedrich Cerha finished act 3 from Berg's short score and sketches in 1979. Theodor W. Adorno called it "one of those works that reveals the extent of its quality the longer and more deeply one immerses oneself in it." Lulu, an ambiguous femme fatale, is framed by chiastic structures in the music drama. Her first husband dies upon finding her with her next husband, who dies by suicide upon learning she has been married off and sexually exploited since childhood. She marries a businessman she says rescued and loved her. As he tries to kill her, she kills him. Aided by her lesbian admirer Geschwitz, she escapes prison and flees to Paris...

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