Maschinist Hopkins

Opera by Max Brand (libretto by composer), produced in Duisburg on 13 April 1929. The opera pre-figures several dramatic themes in Berg's Lulu and was widely performed in Europe before the rise of the Nazis. The first complete post-war performance was by the BBC in London on 9 February 1986. Hopkins saves his factory from closure by Bill, who has murdered his wife's first husband. Hopkins blackmails Bill, who seeks to destroy his enemy's shop, but he falls into the machinery and is killed.