Alban Berg wrote Lulu, the unfinished opera based partly on Frank Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box.
Berg began composing Lulu in 1929, adapting Wedekind's dramatic portrait of Lulu, a sexually independent woman whose relationships end in violence and ruin. The opera combines expressionist intensity with highly organized musical structures, including serial techniques associated with the Second Viennese School.
Berg died in 1935 before completing the orchestration of the third act. The first two acts were performed in 1937, while a completed version using Berg's surviving sketches was prepared by Friedrich Cerha and premiered in 1979.
Lulu is sometimes described simply as an adaptation of Pandora's Box, but it draws on both of Wedekind's Lulu plays. It is also distinct from Pabst's 1929 film, although both works trace their origins to the same literary character.