The Swedish Rider. Grand opera with music by Wolfram Wagner and a libretto by Kristine Tornquist based on the novel of the same name by Leo Perutz (World Premiere) November 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2026, each day at 7:30 PM. 110 minutes, one intermission. Jugendstiltheater, Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Vienna. A sirene production in collaboration with the VIVA LA CLASSICA! Festival FREMDE ERDE. Leo Perutz's The Swedish Rider combines a gripping story at the intersection of war, economy, and social order with a metaphysical interpretation of guilt and atonement. Two fugitives, a thief and a deserter, exchange identities at the lowest point of their lives. The thief plays for high stakes and wins everything. But the lies and crimes on his path eventually catch up with him. After ten years, the two meet again. And again they exchange identities, yet their fates are so intertwined that death strikes both in the same moment—one as a hero, the other as a nobody. Book: Leo Perutz. Text: Kristine Tornquist. Music: Wolfram Wagner. The Thief: Georg Klimbacher. Maria Agneta von Krechwitz auf Kleinroop: Ewelina Jurga. Christian von Tornefeld, nobleman: Gernot Heinrich. Red Lies, robber, young Uechtritz, worker: Katrin Targo. Dead Miller, Baron von Saltzau, Feuerbaum, Baron von Tschirnhaus, farmhand, bishop,
