Alban Berg’s opera Lulu is based on Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays.
Berg adapted Wedekind’s Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box into a three-act opera. The work follows Lulu, whose relationships and social position drive a dark story of desire, power, violence, and downfall. Berg began composing it in the 1920s, and the opera received its premiere in an unfinished two-act form in 1937.
The third act was completed after Berg’s death by Friedrich Cerha, using Berg’s surviving sketches. The complete three-act version was first performed in 1979. This performance history is one reason accounts of Lulu may mention both an original unfinished premiere and a later completed form.
Berg’s opera is connected to Pandora through Wedekind’s play title, but it is not a musical setting of Hesiod’s ancient myth. Its central character is Lulu, a modern dramatic figure created by Wedekind.