Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
Aribert Reimann’s opera, based on Franz Kafka’s novel Das Schloss, depicts K.’s various attempts
to reach the castle for which he has been appointed as a surveyor. The scenes surround
the ultimately inaccessible castle like a moat surrounding high walls. Although the attempts to
reach the castle become successively more hopeless and K. swiftly loses his initial optimism as
to what is achievable, at every attempt renewed hope is born, with new possibilities of success.
It is however precisely this perpetual desire which alienates K. within a society in which the
individuals have already succeeded in finding themselves.
The fundamental characteristic of Reimann’s interpretation is the aspect of superimposition, the
permeation through which all actions are depicted in an alienated hue. Reimann viewed this as
being his underlying compositional task, to recapture Kafka’s enigmatic character, which had
become lost in the dramatised versions, and recreating it in a new medium.
Das Schloss
02.09.1992 Berliner Festwochen · © Deutsche Oper Berlin
The sensitively conceived score, as intimate as chamber music, is […] precisely tailored to each
relevant section of K.’s hopeless journey. Figures such as landlady, office secretary or messenger all
have the function of impeding and confusing K. Each scene has its own individual tonal language,
mode of expression and distinctive instrumentation. (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 11/1992)
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