Besuch für Emma

This year’s International May Festival is a real showcase of actress Dagmar Manzel’s diverse skills: not only is she the protagonist in the world premiere of “AGOTA?”, she also takes on a myriad of different roles in the visiting operetta production “Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will!”, by the Komische Oper Berlin. She fittingly features on the film programme too, in yet another rousing, sharp women’s portrait: in “Besuch für Emma”, Manzel plays cashier Emma, a woman who feels lonely and lost amidst Berlin’s pulsating city life.  There is nothing wrong with her; she just seems to be completely overwhelmed by the big city. She comes up with a novel idea to meet people: she skilfully pinches selected clients’ wallets in the supermarket and then contacts them later, pretending to be a hospitable “do-gooder” who has found the wallet.  When they arrive to collect, she invites them to dine with her at an already prepared dinner table. August, a crafty homeless man, quickly sees through Emma’s plan and begins to develop feelings for her. Dagmar Manzel effortlessly portrays a widowed woman in her early 50s who so desperately wants to participate in life, yet does not know how. Henry Hübchen gives an equally enigmatic performance as the idiosyncratic homeless August.

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden | Germany
AGOTA? Die Analphabetin
AGOTA? The Illiterate(Yesterday/Somewhere)
Helmut Oehring (*196I)
Sung in German
Vocal-instrumental Melodrama
Concept & Libretto by Stefanie Wördemann after texts by Ágota Kristóf
Audio Concept & Production: Torsten Ottersberg / GOGH s.m.p.
Commissioned by the State Theatre of Wiesbaden

Komische Oper Berlin
Berlin | Germany
Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will!
A Woman Who Knows What She Wants!
Oscar Straus (1870-1954)
Performed in German
Operetta in two acts
Libretto: Alfred Grünwald based on work by Louis Verneuil
World premiere: 1932 in Berlin