The Buber-Doráti Festival is a tribute to the legacy of 1,700 years in which Jews played an integral role in the cultural life of Europe. We work in close collaboration with https://www.1700jahre.de/, an initiative that takes its origin in the city of Cologne spreading its activities across all of Germany and the complete duration of the year 2021. Our tribute can be seen as their lighthouse project and is symbolically expanded by the festival’s multiple venues in Prague, Berlin and Jerusalem. Under the maxim ›From Point of View to Dialogue,‹ the significance of Austro-German-Israeli philosopher Martin Buber’s intellectual and literary oeuvre is to be acknowledged in a most notable way:
The world premiere of the opera Der Künder (The Chosen), which is the only theatrical work composed by the eminent conductor Antal Doráti, inspired by Buber’s only ›mystery play‹ for the stage Elijah is to be first performed in a specifically arranged scenic version by Achim Freyer under the musical direction of Martin Fischer-Dieskau. One of Prague’s famed opera venues, the city that witnessed Buber’s first ›Three addresses on Judaism‹ in 1910 in front of an illustrious audience of such enlightened spirits like Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal and Kafka, will be one of our partners. On stage: a cast of well known German and Israeli singers. In the course of the festival foremost scholars from America, Germany and Israel will participate in an international conference to discuss the abiding relevance of Buber’s thought for contemporary politics in Israel and Germany. The occasion is the publication of the twenty-one volume critical edition of Martin Buber’s works, published by Bertelsmann/Random Publishing House.
The eminent world artist, stage designer and producer Achim Freyer will be responsible for realizing very specific conceptions of the opera Der Künder.
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A dialogue characterises not only the communication between people – theories and disciplines can also form a dialogue. Here is where our conference idea takes its origin, always under Martin Buber’s godparenthood needless to say …
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