Schlafes Bruder

In the manuscript of the then unpublished debut novel Schlafes Bruder [Brother of Sleep] by Robert Schneider, the Austrian composer Herbert Willi discovered a plot which was particularly suitable for a musical setting and which in certain key passages was literally ‘crying out to be set to music’ (Willi). The composer also discovered startling parallels between the story and his own biography. In intensive cooperation with the author, an independent libretto was compiled which in form and partially also in content diverged from the novel for Herbert Willi’s first work for the stage. This libretto does however also incorporate core motifs from the novel (which has subsequently received numerous awards and been transformed into an opulent film by Josef Vilsmaier).
Johannes Elias Alder, an exceptionally gifted musician, lives in an isolated mountain community and is destroyed by the wordless villagers and their inability to relate to each other. Ultimately he takes his own life by depriving himself of sleep. However, the composer has replaced Schneider’s bleak conclusion with a positive final twist incorporating the concept of love and hope.