Lulu (opera) - Performance History

Performance History

In its two-act form plus sketches of the third act, Lulu made its American debut at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico during the 1963 season, with the American soprano Joan Carroll in the title role. The Opera's general director, John Crosby, attempted to negotiate for Santa Fe to stage the American premiere of the full three-act opera, but was not successful.

Helene Berg's death on August 30,1976 paved the way for a new completed version of the opera to be made by Friedrich Cerha. There was insufficient time to have the score of this three-act version ready for the first production of the work at the Metropolitan Opera in April 1977 (in a production by John Dexter),, so the incomplete version had to be used. Published in 1979, the Cerha completion premiered on February 24 of the same year at the Opera Garnier and was conducted by Pierre Boulez, with Teresa Stratas singing the lead role; the production (by Patrice Chéreau) was a sensation and the recording won the Gramophone Award for 1979. The Santa Fe Opera's John Crosby had previously negotiated with the opera's publisher, Alfred Kalmus of Universal Edition, to present the American premiere of the complete version and "on July 28th 1979, nearly forty-four years after Berg's death, Lulu was finally performed in its entirety in the USA".. The three-act version rapidly taken up by other companies The Metropolitan Opera first presented the work in complete form in December 1980, a performance since released on DVD.