Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
Volker David Kirchner gave his seventh work for the stage the subtitle “Scenic Moments”. The
texts are compiled from Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and sonnets by Michelangelo.
Kirchner’s Inferno d’amore entwines the language of music and the musical language of
the lyrical styles of Shakespeare and Michelangelo. Kirchner has largely reduced Shakespeare’s
well-known drama to the love scenes between Romeo and Juliet; this allows the theme of “love
and death” to take centre stage with the result that the family conflicts between the Montagues
and Capulets and their effects on the pair of lovers are largely shaded out. Inferno d’amore is
primarily focused on the central theme of the unfulfilled yearning for love, the burning desire to
be consumed by each other – nirvana achieved in a kiss.
Inferno d‘amore
12.03.1995 Ballhof Hannover
The composer’s central aim was to display the lovers’ wish to be consumed by each other – and
how this wish leads them to be devoured by the flame. The underlying style of the music is therefore
dark in tone, saturated with yearning and a madrigalistic solemnity (only occasionally is one
startled by sharp accents). […] Kirchner provides […] a mellow intermezzo: a new view of an old
and vernally uplifting love story. (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 03/1995)
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