"Heaven must be scared as hell!"

In the refrain of his entrance song, the lead character of "Höllenangst," Wendelin, introduces the title of this farce with music as he sings: "My soul, Heaven must be scared as hell!" Nestroy thus used the title of his farce, which obtained little success at its premiere in 1849, in a central passage of his text as well. When Eisler wrote his incidental music to this play a hundred years later, it was no longer a revolution (as in 1848) but a world war that had just ended. Amazingly, Nestroy's text needed only a few changes to become topical once again for the audiences of 1948. This was the opening work of Vienna's new theater "in der Scala," which was established that year at the initiative of re-emigrés. Eisler considerably expanded the number of vocal pieces in comparison with Nestroy's stage version with music by Michael Hebenstreit. He even entered the realm of music theater with his over 20 music numbers of varying dimensions, as he had already done in 1934 with "Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe" and in 1943 with "Schwejk im Zweiten Weltkrieg." Individual numbers from the "Höllenangst" took on a successful life of their own after the world premiere, such as the overture, which became known under the title "Ouvertüre zu einem Lustspiel," and the extended ensemble scene "Die Angst, die Angst geht um!," in which Nestroy laid down the central theme of the work in the style of a leitmotif. "Die Angst" was one of the warhorses of Vienna's Klangforum during the Eisler anniversary year 1998. Thanks to the publication of this volume in the "Hanns Eisler Gesamtausgabe," the entire "Höllenangst" is now available for the first time in score.