Die Stadt hinter dem Strom was Vogt's first opera, originally conceived as a
radio opera. The librettist was Hermann Kasack, the author of the novel on which the opera is based. Kasack had written
Die Stadt hinter dem Strom in 1942, 1943 and 1946, dealing with the horrors of the world wars. He imagined a ruined city with characters who resemble humans but act like puppets. The "Oratorische Oper" (oratorio opera) premiered on
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk and
BBC Radio in 1952. Vogt later revised the work for the stage. It was first performed as a live theatre piece at the
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden on 3 May 1955 as part of the
Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden. Vogt had collaborated with the librettist Hermann Kasack and also with the publisher and musicologist
Fritz Oeser. In an obituary for Oeser authored by Vogt, he recalled that Oeser had requested him to come to Wiesbaden to change the (choral prologue) and address a missing climax in one of the act 3 scenes and promised to pay for the change. The libretto was published by
Suhrkamp Verlag in 1955. A recording of the work by the
Hamburg State Radio was broadcast on
BBC Radio 3 on April 28, 1957. ==References==