Neue Oper Wien: Das Gesicht im Spiegel

Austrian premiere

Music: Jörg Widmann

Libretto: Roland Schimmelpfennig

Married couple Patrizia and Bruno are hoping their biotech group will make a splash on the bleak stock market. Milton, their outstanding engineer, has managed to create a living copy of Patrizia - they call her Justine. From Milton she learns to speak and becomes familiar with her surroundings. Justine can even feel pain but immediately renews herself after any injury. But Justine must be prevented from looking in a mirror: she’s not allowed to learn that she’s a copy of Patrizia.

Both men, Bruno and Milton, fall in love with Patrizia’s copy. Bruno, whose relationship with Patrizia has long since gone cold, wants to begin a new life with Justine and flees with Milton’s production plans. Theoretically he now has the means to be able to reproduce Justine anytime, anywhere. But it doesn’t work out that way...