Editing Lulu (opera) (section)

==History==

=== Sources ===
Berg was familiar with Wedekind's ''Erdgeist'' by 1903, when he was 19.{{sfn|Jarman|1991|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NGY4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 p.&nbsp;1]}} He also saw ''Die Büchse der Pandora'' in 1905 in a production by [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]] on 29 May, and was inspired by the introductory speech that Kraus delivered on that occasion.{{sfn|Elliott|2014|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qrkTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 p.&nbsp;55]}} In Wedekind's two ''Lulu'' plays, now often performed together under that title, ''Erdgeist'' forms the basis for the act 1 and act 2, scene 1, of the opera culminating in her shooting Dr. Schön, while ''Die Büchse der Pandora'' forms the basis for the rest of act 2 and act 3, Lulu's imprisonment, escape and subsequent decline and murder.

=== Composition ===
Berg did not begin work on ''Lulu'' until 1929, after he had completed his other opera, ''[[Wozzeck]]''.{{sfn|Jarman|1991|p=3}} Thanks to ''Wozzeck''{{'}}s success Berg had economic security that enabled him to embark on a second opera.{{sfn|Perle|1995|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTWstz_E4b0C&pg=PA67 p.&nbsp;67]}} But life in the musical world was becoming increasingly difficult in the 1930s in both Vienna and Germany due to rising [[antisemitism]] and the [[Nazi]] cultural ideology that denounced the music of Berg, Webern, and others.{{sfn|Jarman|1991|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NGY4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA44 p.&nbsp;44]}} Even to have an association with someone Jewish could lead to denunciation, and Berg had studied with the Jewish composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]].{{sfn|Jarman|1991|loc= p.&nbsp;42}} ''Wozzeck'''s success was short-lived, as theatre after theatre succumbed to political pressure and refused to produce it, [[Erich Kleiber]]'s 30 November 1932 production being the last, while sets and scenery were systematically destroyed.{{sfn|Jarman|1989|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=xGm2lGZh3wsC&pg=PA78 p.&nbsp;78–80]}} ''Wozzeck'' was also banned in the [[Soviet Union]] as "bourgeois".{{sfn|Perle|1995|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTWstz_E4b0C&pg=PA68 p.&nbsp;68]}} Berg found that opportunities for his work to be performed in Germany were growing scarce, and in September 1935 his music was proscribed as ''Entartete Musik'' ([[degenerate music]]) under the label ''Kulturbolschewismus'' ([[Cultural Bolshevism]]).{{sfn|Steinweis|1996|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Qaj0alN21yMC&pg=PA138 pp.&nbsp;138–139]}}{{sfn|Notley|2010}}{{sfn|Perle|1995|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTWstz_E4b0C&pg=PA68 p.&nbsp;68]}}

Despite these conditions, Berg worked on ''Lulu'' in seclusion at his lodge, the ''Waldhaus'', in [[Carinthia]]. In the spring of 1934 he learned from [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] that production of ''Lulu'' in Berlin would be impossible with the current cultural and political situation. It was at this point that he set the work on the opera aside to prepare a concert suite, in the event that the opera could never be performed, and also considered expanding it into a ''Lulu'' Symphony. This was his ''Symphonische Stücke aus der Oper "Lulu"'' (''Lulu Suite'') for soprano and orchestra.{{sfn|IMSLP}} Kleiber performed the piece at the [[Berlin State Opera]] on 30 November, and despite an enthusiastic reception by some sections of the audience, condemnation by the authorities prompted Kleiber's resignation four days later and departure from Germany.{{sfn|Perle|1995|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=sTWstz_E4b0C&pg=PA68 p.&nbsp;68]}} The reaction of periodicals such as ''[[Die Musik]]'' and ''Zeitschrift für Musik'' was particularly hostile.{{sfn|London|2000|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bEHuIhK7J7MC&pg=PA186 p.&nbsp;186]}} On December 7, [[Goebbels]] made a speech equating [[atonality]] with "the Jewish intellectual infection," while the January 1935 issue of ''Die Musik'' suggested that any reviewer who had written anything favourable about the suite should be dismissed.{{sfn|Jarman|1989|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=xGm2lGZh3wsC&pg=PA79 p.&nbsp;79]}}

In January 1935, the Russian-born American violinist [[Louis Krasner]], who had championed Berg's work in the United States, approached Berg to commission a violin concerto. Berg was reluctant to set aside ''Lulu'' for this, but the money ($1,500) was welcomed, as Berg was in financial difficulties, financially and artistically ruined by the ''[[Reichskulturkammer]]'' (Nazi cultural committee). At first there was only a tentative agreement, but at the end of March he told Krasner he would compose it and had started some preliminary work. But it was the tragic death of 18-year-old [[Manon Gropius]] (the daughter of [[Walter Gropius]] and [[Alma Mahler]], whom the Bergs treated as their own daughter) on April 22 that prompted Berg to set aside ''Lulu'' for the concerto, which he dedicated to her. The [[Violin Concerto (Berg)|concerto]] was completed swiftly, between April and August of that year, but the time he spent on it prevented him from completing the opera before his sudden death on December 24.{{sfn|Hailey|2010a}}{{sfn|Jarman|1991|loc= p.&nbsp;4}}{{sfn|Elliott|2014|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qrkTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 p.&nbsp;55]}}{{sfn|Lee|2002|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=p_VxlULxuq8C&pg=PA59 pp.&nbsp;59–60]}}

The following portions of the third and final act were fully scored: the first 268 bars; the instrumental interlude between scenes 1 and 2; and the finale of the opera, beginning with the monologue of Countess Geschwitz. (The last two of these passages comprise the fourth and fifth movements of the ''Lulu Suite'' that Berg compiled for concert performance.) The rest of the work remained in [[short score]] with indications of instrumentation for much of it. Berg heard the Symphonic Pieces in a BBC radio broadcast from the [[Queen's Hall]], London, on 20 March 1935, conducted by Sir [[Adrian Boult]] and produced by [[Edward Clark (conductor)|Edward Clark]]. It was the first time he had ever heard any of the music of ''Lulu''. He did not hear these excerpts performed live until a concert in Vienna on December 11, a fortnight before his death.{{sfn|Chadwick|1985}}{{sfn|Doctor|1999|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CVCtkShvDSkC&pg=PA309 pp.&nbsp;309–312]}}