On Sunday, Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek’s new opera, “Monster’s Paradise,” premiered at the Staatsoper Hamburg, staged by the house’s artistic director Tobias Kratzer. The work is a dark satire that involves a King-President obsessed with shit and modeled on Donald Trump; he battles a monster named Gorgonzilla, as vampires based on Neuwirth and Jelinek themselves comment on the action. It was probably Germany’s most anticipated world premiere for 2026. VAN editor Jeffrey Arlo Brown and contributor Kevin Ng met up after the piece at a nearly deserted Five Guys franchise to discuss their reactions.

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…writes about classical music and science, and is currently based in New York.

… has been an editor at VAN since 2015. He’s the author of The Life and Music of Gérard Grisey: Delirium and Form (Boydell & Brewer), and his journalism has appeared in The Baffler, the New York...