Cain and Abel or The first Murder

It is the mythical tale of how crime came into the world. It is the story of the first murder, which has since been repeated over and over again in the most diverse variations and will continue to repeat itself. It is about envy and jealousy, revenge and regret. It is about Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. Because God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's, the latter kills his brother. And since this biblical incident touches on the basic constants of human life, it remains with us to this day. So it's no wonder that artists have taken up this theme again and again throughout the millennia. The Linz Landestheater now presents and contrasts two moving examples of this ongoing examination of the first murder when it combines Bernardo Pasquini's early Baroque oratorio Caino et Abel from 1671 in a staged performance with George Antheil's chamber opera The Brothers, which premiered in 1954.

While Pasquini (1637-1710), who was a celebrated composer, harpsichordist and organist in Roman musical life during his lifetime, approaches the material with a deeply felt Baroque religiosity, Antheil (1900-1959) transposes the biblical narrative to his American present. Antheil, who began his career as a "bad boy of music", used a tonal language whose sensual seriousness appealed directly to the listener.