„…, als habe dort niemals eine Insel gestanden.“ Wolfgang Hildesheimers und Hans Werner Henzes Das Ende einer Welt als Erzählung und Rundfunkoper

In Das Ende einer Welt , the first grotesque narration from Lieblose Legenden , Wolfgang Hildesheimer is describing the fall of the old Europe, its art, music and culture (as his readers had just in mind in the year of his first publication 1952). His text is the basis for Hans Werner Henze’s radio opera of the same title (NWDR 1953, 1993). The narration, its reworking as a libretto and its musical adaption in Henze’s radio opera is analysed interdisciplinary. The focus of the analysis lies on the characteristics of the genre radio opera and on Henze’s use of radio technique. So far unknown archive material from the Paul Sacher foundation (Basel) and the estate of Herbert Hübner (SUB Hamburg) shows, in what way Henze combines new radio technique with compositional techniques of the avant-garde by still following his traditional aesthetics.