1. Lulu
Opera by the German-Danish composer Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832), based on the fairy tale Lulu oder die Zauberflöte by A.J. Liebeskind (1758-1793), from the collection Dschinnistan by C.M. Wieland (1733-1813) . He was thus using the same source that Mozart (1756-1791) used for Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute", 1791), and the libretti for the two operas have many resemblances. On the whole, though, Kuhlau's interpretation of the fairy tale is more straightforward, less mystical. The opera was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1824.
2. Lulu
Opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935). Berg began writing the opera in 1929, based on two plays by the German expressionist Frank Wedekind (1864-1918), Der Erdgeist (1895, first performed in 1898) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1901, first performed in 1904). When Berg died, the opera was incomplete (though it was performed in truncated form, without the unfinished third act, in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1937), but it was later completed by Friedrich Cerha (1926-), and this version was first performed in Paris, 1979.
Lulu is the story of a woman without morals, whose rise through society ends in descent into prostitution, and eventually her death - at the hands of Jack the Ripper.