OPUS 45 - Evening Concert

"It was murder!" Real crimes from contemporary history
A true-crime concert evening with Roman Knizka & OPUS 45

Four people. Four fates. Four crimes that made history.

Case 1: The murder of Reich Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger († 1921)
Case 2: Lawyer Hans Litten († 1938) - the man who challenged Adolf Hitler in court.
Case 3: The tragic deaths of Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian († 1992)
Case 4 (20 years ago): the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya († 2006)

"It was murder!" is not a conventional concert. It brings together true crime, classical music and vivid historical storytelling in one striking evening. TV star Roman Knizka narrates these harrowing stories, bringing crime scenes, victims and perpetrators to life.

The wind quintet OPUS 45 - featuring musicians from the Hamburg State Opera, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover - gives the evening its own musical voice. Works by Klaus Doldinger, Henry Mancini, John Barry, Carl Nielsen, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Hanns Eisler, Dmitri Shostakovich and Johann Sebastian Bach make the drama of each case viscerally present.

Performers: Roman Knizka (narrator), OPUS 45 (wind quintet) // Dramaturgy: Kathrin Liebhäuser