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71-410: Franz Xaver Kroetz ( German: [fʁant͡s ˈksaː.vɐ kʁœt͡s] ; born 25 February 1946) is a German author, playwright, actor and film director. He achieved great success beginning in the early 1970s. Persistent , Farmyard , and Request Concert , all written in 1971, are some of the works conventionally associated with Kroetz. Kroetz is part of a generation of playwrights who modified

142-484: A morality play , and different from most of the works in the second phase. Rolf-Peter Carl, in Franz Xaver Kroetz (1978), divides his works into those before 1972, an "experimental" phase (1972–73), and those since 1974. In a 1996 article about Bauern sterben (1985), Moray McGowan wrote that Bavaria's Catholicism, obstinate conservatism and distrust of modernization were emphasized as elements of Kroetz's work in

213-448: A 2006 performance three out of five stars, praising the performances but arguing, "By showing not only the explosions but also the mundane business of clearing up, the play has a fragmented rhythm". Gardner gave a positive review to a 2007 performance, arguing that Kroetz is able to make mundane events "hypnotic"; she claimed that the majority of the play is "like watching an unstable building sway and fall in agonising slow motion." Tom Fool

284-766: A convincing political dimension to the private experiences of his characters." His plays in the 1970s portrayed people who had been rendered speechless by their own social misery. He has named Marieluise Fleißer as a major influence on his early writing, as well as Ödön von Horváth . He became famous when in 1971 the premiere of his plays Heimarbeit (translated as "House-work" or "Houseworker") and Hartnäckig ( Persistent ) were disrupted by neo-fascists . Houseworker caused controversy for containing explicit scenes. His later plays contain less violence and sexuality, and are more influenced by Bertolt Brecht . Oberösterreich ( Upper Austria , 1972) and Das Nest ( The Nest , 1974) garnered popular and critical acclaim. The former marked

355-446: A drama of the inarticulate. The hallmark of his style is to draw characters unable to find the half-word they need to express sorrow or rage." The early plays of Kroetz also end violently. Mel Gussow describes Kroetz as reliant on words rather than images, and quotes the playwright as having been disturbed by the "garrulity" of most theater of the same time. Kroetz has also argued, "A dramatist must be tough on his characters. Sentimentality

426-443: A highly successful play by its librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio , a celebrated Italian poet, novelist and dramatist of the day. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy 's Pelléas et Mélisande after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck . The question of which is more important in opera – the music or the words – has been debated over time, and forms

497-411: A lasting collaboration), Auber , Bellini , Donizetti , Rossini and Verdi . The French writers' duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote many opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach , Jules Massenet and Georges Bizet . Arrigo Boito , who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli , also composed two operas of his own. The libretto

568-471: A little simplistic and old-fashioned" despite a topical environmental message. Barry V. Daniels lauded Through the Leaves as thematically "far beyond the specific naturalism of Antoine. When the generally middle class, educated audience confronts the essential matter of the play – its profound humanness – the barrier between them and the lower class characters breaks down". Reviewing a 1987 performance of Through

639-451: A shift from portraying (in Kroetz's words) the "milieu of the extreme" to portraying average people who lack pent-up frutrations and communicate more effectively. Donna L. Hoffmeister wrote that the work "was presented, according to my count, by forty different theaters between 1974 and 1976 and the play Das Nest (1974) by about twenty theaters in the 1976/77 season". In The Nest , the protagonist

710-465: A splinter in the mind." He said that even certain impediments of the production he had attended (like Downey's English translation being relocated in Queens) did not "mute the jarring strains of [Kroetz's] genuinely disturbing theatrical voice." In 2003, The Guardian ' s Michael Billington gave a Southwark Playhouse performance four out of five stars and wrote, "What makes Kroetz an exceptional dramatist

781-554: A stratum of society rarely thrown into the limelight." In 2014 the play enjoyed a tour across Cyprus by the ONE/OFF group, performed in Greek. In 1975, Stallerhof was followed by the sequel Geisterbahn , which ends with Sepp and Beppi's child being killed. In 1988 the Austrian composer Gerd Kühr wrote an opera of the same title, on a libretto by Kroetz, closely modeled on the original. It

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852-445: A subject and developing a sketch of the action in the form of a scenario , as well as revisions that might come about when the work is in production, as with out-of-town tryouts for Broadway musicals, or changes made for a specific local audience. A famous case of the latter is Wagner's 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris. The opera libretto from its inception ( c.  1600 )

923-494: A success. He considers Upper Austria , The Nest , and Tom Fool to form a trilogy. He wrote a libretto based on his play Stallerhof (1971) for an opera of the same name which Gerd Kühr composed in 1987/88. It was premiered at the first Munich Biennale in 1988. The play was staged at the Burgtheater in 2010 by David Bösch. In her book Franz Xaver Kroetz: The Construction of a Political Aesthetic , Michelle Mattson of

994-457: Is a trap, and it's tempting because audiences love sentimental plays." The extreme naturalism of Request Concert has led to retrospective comparisons of it with Chantal Akerman 's film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), and also with Marsha Norman 's 'night, Mother (1983). Gautam Dasgupta has compared him to David Storey and Rainer W. Fassbinder , and also stated that his plays are "structured around cliches in

1065-526: Is a truck driver. His boss orders him to dump toxic waste into a lake, thus soiling his "nest." After the early plays, he tried writing works for television because he wanted to reach a wider audience, and his move to TV had this effect, with Maria Magdalena viewed by five to 15 million. The contemporary television fare cautioned through comedy against activism by workers, and Kroetz wished to refunction televisual Volkstheater for progressive aims. His works for television have been described as "metacritiques of

1136-637: Is also known for his role as the gossip columnist 'Baby' Schimmerlos (roughly 'Baby Clueless') in the television series Kir Royal . His income from acting made writing without financial worries possible. From 1992 to 2005, Kroetz was married to the actress Marie-Theres Relin . They have three children. As of 2011, Kroetz lived in the Chiemgau and on Tenerife . Some of Kroetz's plays have also been translated into French and performed in France. According to Holmberg, critics "refer to Mr. Kroetz's plays as constituting

1207-588: Is greatly different from the Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted , uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the miscegenation scene. And Lionel Bart 's Oliver! uses chunks of dialogue from Charles Dickens 's novel Oliver Twist , although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel. As the originating language of opera, Italian dominated that genre in Europe (except in France) well through

1278-419: Is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka , Alexander Serov , Rimsky-Korsakov , Puccini and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines (this has often been the case with American popular song and musicals in the 20th century, as with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart 's collaboration, although with

1349-446: Is suffused with primitive emotions, and there is even a kind of beauty." He said that both Request Concert and Farmyard "are not plays that one is likely to forget." A Boston production, titled Staller's Farm , ran from May 6 to June 5, 1982. In The Boston Phoenix , Carolyn Clay noted that "The events of this play are simple, scatological, and crude; the language is (in critic Richard Gilman 's words) 'maimed' and 'stricken'; and

1420-416: Is that he links behaviour to economics." He also argued, "Without a hint of patronage or condescension, Kroetz shows how both characters are victims of circumstance." Gardner called it "a gripping but gruelling dissection of a relationship that flounders on mismatched desire, conditioned responses and the utter failure of language [...] one of his best plays". Mark Brown praised the playwright as understanding

1491-408: Is the diminutive of the word libro ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works, Textbuch for German and libreto for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use

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1562-483: Is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera , operetta , masque , oratorio , cantata or musical . The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass , requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet . The Italian word libretto ( pronounced [liˈbretto] , plural libretti [liˈbretti] )

1633-447: Is unable to fulfill his social and sexual desires. He can only act as master towards his dog. Act 2 Beppi and Sepp take a ride on a ghost train in an amusement park. Sepp initially comforts the frightened Beppi, but then seduces her. Afterwards he takes her to a restaurant, increasingly developing his new role as her master and protector. When Beppi's parents discover the affair, Staller loses his temper, confronts Sepp, and poisons

1704-415: Is unable to read a letter without making mistakes, she is slapped. But when she is left to herself, she can read it perfectly. The only one who treats her well is Sepp, an almost 60-year-old labourer. He tells her a touching story about North American Indians in which a woman outcast by her tribe is rescued by a white man. The labourer, downtrodden by Beppi's parents, longs for freedom and independence, but

1775-554: The Columbia University summarizes: Franz Xaver Kroetz – banana-cutter, hospital orderly, fledgling actor and, more significantly, Germany's most popular contemporary dramatist of the seventies and early eighties. This study, which situates Kroetz's aesthetics in a political context, focuses on four plays that mark crisis points in his development of a political aesthetic. Kroetz wrote for the television series Tatort , Spiel mit Karten in 1980 and Wolf im Schafspelz in 2002. He

1846-843: The Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna. He worked as a day-laborer. In the late 1960s, when he was unable to enter mainstream theater, he was active in the alternative theater scene in Munich, and also wrote and acted in works of the Bauerntheater (peasant farces with figures who act out stock situations). He became a member of the German Communist Party ( DKP ) in 1972, leaving in May 1980 when it had negligible political influence in West Germany. He

1917-422: The aria " Nessun dorma " from Puccini's Turandot , the final lines in the libretto are "Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò!" (Fade, you stars! At dawn, I will win!). However, in the score they are sung as "Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!". Because the modern musical tends to be published in two separate but intersecting formats (i.e., the book and lyrics, with all

1988-415: The public domain ) this format is supplemented with melodic excerpts of musical notation for important numbers. Printed scores for operas naturally contain the entire libretto, although there can exist significant differences between the score and the separately printed text. More often than not, this involves the extra repetition of words or phrases from the libretto in the actual score. For example, in

2059-427: The 'double burden' of class and gender carried by working class women, and added that "arguably his best writing is reserved for Otto's solitary musings on his position [...] The great beauty of Tom Fool is that it manages to address the politics of capitalism without a hint of polemic. Kroetz relies upon the emotional dynamics and powerful poetry that are the hallmark of great theatre". The Guardian 's Mark Fisher gave

2130-652: The 18th century, and even into the next century in Russia, for example, when the Italian opera troupe in Saint Petersburg was challenged by the emerging native Russian repertory. Significant exceptions before 1800 can be found in Purcell 's works, Handel 's first operas, ballad opera and Singspiel of the 18th century, etc. Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation . In

2201-481: The Brechtian elements of Sterntaler and Heimat make them less powerful than previous works, akin to melodrama or soap opera. Critics of Agnes Bernauer found the heroine unconvincing and the socio-economics oversimplified. The Guardian 's Susannah Clapp expressed a lukewarm view of The Nest , describing some scenes as moving but arguing, "There is uplift at the end but the unremitting intensity takes its toll on

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2272-692: The Hamburg Island Award for Best Actress of the Year for her performance in 1972. The film scholar Michael Töteberg  [ de ] has stated that no later production reached the intensity of the first one. Mel Gussow , who attended a 1981 performance at the Theater for the New City , dubbed the play "compulsively fascinating". He noted "the author's unconventional artistry and his radical line of vision. [...] though his observations seem dispassionate, his play

2343-468: The Leaves (1976) and Tom Fool (1978) are also highly regarded. Kroetz's plays have been translated and performed internationally. Simon Stephens argued in 2016, "Kroetz was identifying how poverty can give rise to brutality, to cynicism, despair and fear. His plays are as resonant now as they've ever been." Kroetz was born in Munich and did poorly in high school. He attended an acting school in Munich and

2414-506: The Leaves at the Dallas Theater Center, Jeannie M. Woods praised the play's psychological insight, calling it "a profoundly disturbing play [...] Her Pollyanna attitude seems to flourish on Otto's abuse and on his inability to express his affection. [...] The harsh reality is tempered both by the warmth of Martha and by grotesque comedy." Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote in 1984 that the play "is not pleasant, but it sticks like

2485-461: The Lilacs , Carousel used dialogue from Ferenc Molnár 's Liliom , My Fair Lady took most of its dialogue word-for-word from George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion , Man of La Mancha was adapted from the 1959 television play I, Don Quixote , which supplied most of the dialogue, and the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan used J. M. Barrie 's dialogue. Even the musical Show Boat , which

2556-642: The People , 1994) garnered mixed responses. In 1976 Michael Roloff translated some of Kroetz's plays into English, namely Stallerhof ( Farmyard ), Michis Blut ( Michi's Blood ), Männersache ( Men's Business ), and Ein Mann ein Wörterbuch ( A Man a Dictionary ). Roger Downey translated Wunschkonzert ( Request Concert ) , Durch die Blätter ( Through the Leaves , the final version of Men's Business ), and Das Nest ( The Nest ). Some of Kroetz's plays have been performed in

2627-480: The Roof has a composer ( Jerry Bock ), a lyricist ( Sheldon Harnick ) and the writer of the "book" ( Joseph Stein ). In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements – music, lyrics and libretto, as Lionel Bart did for Oliver! . Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. There are the preliminary steps of selecting or suggesting

2698-698: The United Kingdom, for example, in 2002, Through the Leaves at the Southwark Playhouse , in the United States, for example, in 1982, Michi's Blood in New York, as well as in Australia. Stallerhof Act 1 The mentally retarded, shortsighted Beppi is regarded as a social disgrace by her parents, the farmer Staller and his wife. The permanent pressure to which Beppi is exposed takes its toll. When she

2769-476: The awareness of their own feelings." Cocalis claimed that by 1972 Kroetz had drawn some criticism for being too repetitive or too apolitical. Works like Lienz – Gateway to the Dolomites (1972), Maria Magdalena (1972), Sterntaler (1974), Heimat (1975), and Agnes Bernauer (1976) were neither critically nor commercially successful. In Maria Magdalena Kroetz in her view struggles with his own formal idiom, and

2840-472: The basis of at least two operas, Richard Strauss 's Capriccio and Antonio Salieri 's Prima la musica e poi le parole . Libretti have been made available in several formats, some more nearly complete than others. The text – i.e., the spoken dialogue, song lyrics and stage directions, as applicable – is commonly published separately from the music (such a booklet is usually included with sound recordings of most operas). Sometimes (particularly for operas in

2911-470: The composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote, a notable exception being Gertrude Stein , who received top billing for Four Saints in Three Acts . Another exception was Alberto Franchetti 's 1906 opera La figlia di Iorio which was a close rendering of

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2982-549: The composer. In some 17th-century operas still being performed, the name of the librettist was not even recorded. As the printing of libretti for sale at performances became more common, these records often survive better than music left in manuscript. But even in late 18th century London, reviews rarely mentioned the name of the librettist, as Lorenzo Da Ponte lamented in his memoirs. By the 20th century some librettists became recognised as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein . Today

3053-409: The context of a modern English-language musical theatre piece, the libretto is considered to encompass both the book of the work (i.e., the spoken dialogue) and the sung lyrics. Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries were generally written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Pietro Trapassi , known as Metastasio (1698–1782) was one of

3124-463: The critical folk-piece, emphasizing in his works of the early 1970s the underside of West Germany's affluence through realistic portrayals of the lives of the poor. He later began writing for television, which led to a wider audience. His more analytical, Brecht -influenced plays were generally not well-received, though Upper Austria (1972) and The Nest (1974) achieved critical and commercial success. Some later works of social realism like Through

3195-500: The dog in revenge. Sepp has to leave the farm and gives Beppi a bar of chocolate as a leaving present. Act 3 Staller and his wife argue about what to do with their pregnant daughter, even contemplating murder. They want her to have an abortion, but don't force it on her out of pity. Like it or not, Beppi must now be taken more seriously than in the past. The play ends with the onset of her labour pains. Stallerhoff and Geisterbahn , both first published in 1971, (although Geistbahn

3266-422: The early 1970s, but that the contribution of his Bavarian identity to certain tensions in his work later became ignored. Michael Toteborg wrote that while Kroetz writes controversial content for serious purposes and "never wanted to raise himself above the characters interacting on the stage [...] the question concerning the aesthetic and political worth of Kroetz's dramatic productions is debatable". Carl accused

3337-566: The early works as "descriptive realism" and the later works as "analytic realism" or "engaged realism". Sterntaler and Heimat include film clips of workplaces, and socially critical songs by workers. According to Craig Decker, Kroetz in his television works dramatizes how TV can constrain viewer consciousness; the playwright hopes to create people who break away from commercial culture and act as citizens rather than consumers. Gérard Thiériot divided his mainstream work into three phases: up to 1972, 1972–1980, and 1980 onward. The Nest has been called

3408-445: The ending of Men's Business as "one of Kroetz's most effective scenes". In a review of Farmyard and Four Plays (which contains Farmyard , Request Concert , Michi's Blood , Men's Business , and the Men's Business revision A Man, A Dictionary ), Dasgupta billed the playwright's works as "lyrical, scathing, humane dramas". Jeanette R. Malkin referred to Farmyard and Ghost Train as

3479-422: The evil, for in these plays a just order of the universe [...] simply does not exist." She also sees Kroetz as implying that the material interests of the family unit determine the code of normative sexuality. These plays have been described as impacting audiences primarily through compassion, and after 1972 he moved to a more analytical form of political drama about broader economic issues. Kroetz has referred to

3550-537: The feelings are like bare, anguished faces without any mouths." Farmyard was described as "haunting" in a 2006 issue of Theatre Record . Stallerhof was translated into Hebrew and in 1986 performed at the Habima National Theatre in Israel. After attending a 2006 performance at the Southwark Playhouse , Philip Fisher argued that the work "can hardly be described as cheerful but it is moving and puts on stage

3621-521: The later team of Rodgers and Hammerstein the lyrics were generally written first, which was Rodgers' preferred modus operandi). Some composers wrote their own libretti. Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz , too, wrote the libretti for two of his best-known works, La damnation de Faust and Les Troyens . Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchner 's play Woyzeck for

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3692-485: The latter is glorified, though he dubbed the play "powerfully and self-consciously theatrical", saying it contains "a series of elemental, powerful images." In 1998, Angelica Fenner noted that the negative characterizations of female protagonists who choose abortion had garnered him some praise from conservative factions. Der Drang ( The Urge , 1994), an extended version of Lieber Fritz ( Dear Fritz , 1971), drew controversy for its sexual content. Ich bin das Volk ( I Am

3763-424: The libretto of Wozzeck . Sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer; this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Vladimir Belsky , or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics and the "book" (i.e., the spoken dialogue and the stage directions) may each have its own author. Thus, a musical such as Fiddler on

3834-402: The lyrics of the arias , duets , trios and choruses written in verse. The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally – much as Oklahoma! used dialogue from Lynn Riggs 's Green Grow

3905-407: The manner of Ionesco ". Tom Fool has been compared to Harold Pinter 's play The Homecoming for its depiction of a decomposing family. Susan L. Cocalis writes that early on Kroetz does not give readers a way to "locate the events on stage in a hypothetical framework and thus gain some distance to the action. He does not even bother to supply any discernible criteria for identifying the good and

3976-413: The most highly regarded librettists in Europe. His libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte . He wrote the libretti for three of Mozart 's greatest operas, and for many other composers as well. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer (with whom he had

4047-412: The most important dramas of his early period. Frank Rich wrote in a review of Michi's Blood that it is not one of Kroetz's best work, and said the playwright engages in "uncharacteristic point-making, by force-feeding his heroine [...] Beckett -isms". The Washington Post 's David Richards argued, "Unpleasant as it may be, 'Michi's Blood' is on to something about people deprived of language, purpose and

4118-442: The old Betty Grable – Don Ameche – Carmen Miranda vehicles, are largely unaffected, but this practice is especially misleading in translations of musicals like Show Boat , The Wizard of Oz , My Fair Lady or Carousel , in which the lyrics to the songs and the spoken text are often or always closely integrated, and the lyrics serve to further the plot. Availability of printed or projected translations today makes singing in

4189-471: The original language more practical, although one cannot discount the desire to hear a sung drama in one's own language. The Spanish words libretista (playwright, script writer or screenwriter) and libreto (script or screen play), which are used in the Hispanic TV and cinema industry, derived their meanings from the original operatic sense. Librettists have historically received less prominent credit than

4260-555: The pace. Detail is a double-edged sword. Some of the most striking episodes stretch the patience most: there is a long sequence when a suicide attempt gradually turns to farce." In a 2001 review of Alexander Gelman 's A Man with Connections , about a man who is viewed by his wife as responsible for an industrial accident that harmed their son, Lyn Gardner argued that Kroetz handles a similar scenario better in The Nest . In 2016, however, she said The Nest has didactic impulses and "now looks

4331-629: The past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece. A man like Louis Durdilly would translate the whole libretto, dialogues and airs, into French: Così fan tutte became Ainsi font toutes, ou la Fidélité des femmes , and instead of Ferrando singing "Un' aura amorosa" French-speaking audiences were treated to Fernand singing "Ma belle est fidèle autant qu'elle est belle". Many musicals, such as

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4402-477: The playwright of theoretical banalities but also defends the earlier works against the playwright's later indictments. He praised Farmyard as capable of stirring audiences to social involvement, but criticized Men's Business for its ending and Munich Child for its "demagogy". Henry J. Schmidt, reviewing Carl's book on Kroetz, criticized Carl for discussing the political effectiveness of Men's Business without recourse to audience response, however, and described

4473-608: The stage play was in Hamburg's Deutsches Schauspielhaus on 24 June 1972, directed by Ulrich Heising  [ de ] , who was known for social criticism. It made the 18-year-old actress Eva Mattes , who was seen nude for half a scene, famous. Reinhard Baumgart  [ de ] wrote on June 26 in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the Beppi played by Mattes gained an aura that Kroetz had probably not even planned. Mattes received

4544-399: The television industry" that thematize its detrimental impact on viewers. Das Nest was first produced for television in 1976, and aired in West Germany in 1979. Upper Austria was first broadcast in 1973. The broadcaster ZDF postponed Upper Austria for months due to its politics. Kroetz moved into social realism with Through the Leaves (1976) and Tom Fool (1978), the latter of which was

4615-467: The word libretto to refer to the 15- to 40-page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by scene. The relationship of the librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed. In

4686-470: Was affiliated with Suhrkamp Verlag until 1974, with his radical politics being problematic for the publisher. Kroetz admitted in a 1978 interview to being a somewhat combative person. Michael Toteborg wrote in 1978 that the best-known of the early plays are Wildwechsel ( Game Crossing or Jailbait , 1968), Mannersache ( Men's Business , 1970), and Farmyard . He said that in Munich Child "Kroetz [gives]

4757-424: Was controversial, with half the audience at its Munich premiere leaving by the end of the third act. A reviewer for Der Spiegel lauded Kroetz as accurately depicting the social conditions and languages of the people portrayed. Hellmuth Karasek praised Bauern sterben (1985) in the same magazine. Discussing the same play, McGowan criticized the city-country dichotomy in which the former is depicted as soulless and

4828-473: Was described as "superb" in The Herald . According to Dominic Dromgoole, Kroetz was for some "the guiding light of the 1980s. For others, he was the most mind-bogglingly boring playwright history had ever thrown up." Arthur Holmberg of The New York Times wrote in 1984 that "literary critics rank him as one of the most important of Europe's young playwrights." The surrealistic Neither Fish Nor Flesh (1981)

4899-409: Was not performed until 1975) are plays which are known for their sex and violence, with "graphic scenes of rape, defecation, masturbation, nudity, and an infanticide". In another play, two of the protagonists take turns to shoot and wound each other. The "only action" in the third scene of this play is said to be the sight of the ageing farmhand masturbating whilst sitting on a toilet. The premiere of

4970-488: Was premiered at the first Munich Biennale . A review notes: "Kroetz's Stallerhof is a work about inability to communicate, which opens space for music. ... There is expressionist music, which brings to mind. the inarticulacy and exploitation suffered by Wozzeck . In 2006 it was revived at the Southwark Playhouse in London. Libretto A libretto (From the Italian word libretto , lit.   ' booklet ' )

5041-489: Was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theatre with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. Much of the recitatives of George Gershwin 's opera Porgy and Bess , for instance, are merely DuBose and Dorothy Heyward 's play Porgy set to music as written – in prose – with

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