Commissioned by Opera 2000.
This is a low entertainment for highbrows, or vice-versa. It is the history of Mr. and Mrs. Jedermann, a couple of song and dance merchants, and incidentally of the twentieth century too. The Jedermanns stumble through the momentous events, politics and social change of the last one hundred years, never aging and only begrudgingly developing. Their sole aim is to provide some songs and snatches, to raise a laugh or provoke a tear.
The form the piece adopts is more that of musical comedy than opera. It is a modern Singspiel, a review of a century in nineteen panels. There is dialogue and songs, but from time to time the action is interrupted by through-composed mini-operas which contain the serious, imaginative heart of the show.