Philippe Manoury presents a new work commissioned by the Cologne Opera, with its world premiere scheduled for June 27, 2025 — a Thinkspiel directed by Nicolas Stemann, featuring the opera chorus and the Gürzenich Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel: Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind). The libretto, based on a tragedy written between 1915 and 1919 by Viennese satirist and polemicist Karl Kraus, was written by Philippe Manoury himself, along with Patrick Hahn and Nicolas Stemann.

Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind) portrays the collapse of a world consumed by endless wars. Divided into five acts—each corresponding to one year of World War I—with a prologue and an epilogue, this over-700-page work was, according to its author, “a play not for humans but for the planet Mars.” There are no main characters in this tragedy, but rather a multitude of situations, often disconnected. Realism, satire, comedy, tragedy, and political invective are interwoven with the fantastic and the apocalyptic.

This Thinkspiel is structured in two major parts, separated by an intermission. The first part follows the chronological structure of Kraus’s play, including a Prologue and five Acts in a highly condensed form. The dimensions of the original text had to be drastically reduced—otherwise, a full performance would have lasted over 24 hours!

In the second part of the Thinkspiel, divided into four tableaux, we leave the historical world of Kraus and shift to an undefined present/future. The only unifying thread between the two parts is the idea of eternal war. As the work approaches its conclusion, it circles back to Karl Kraus—but to a visionary Kraus, blending supernatural events, animals, nature, and apocalyptic imagery.

The singers and actors will not embody specific characters but will take on a multitude of roles, as in Kraus’s book. However, a new character not present in the original text has been invented. This figure transcends all eras: the Angelus Novus, inspired by Paul Klee’s painting which led Walter Benjamin—who owned the piece—to imagine the figure of the “angel of history.” At once a messenger, a witness, and a wandering Jew (Ahasuerus), he helplessly watches the downfall of humanity, victim of its own madness for destruction.

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