Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
Homage to Mozart of a special kind: in his approach to the Don Juan myth, Schulhoff does not
portray the libertine as a sexual predator, but as a figure eternally driven by desire. In contrast
to Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the hero is not sent to hell but, like Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, is
condemned to an eternal search for love and redemption. Two archaic principles, the “flames”
of life (symbolised by the male figure of Don Juan) and the “flames” of death (represented
by the female figure La Morte), yearn to be unified, but mutually repel each other. Man and
woman, life and death, yearning and fulfilment and hope and resignation are set in Schulhoff’s
only work for the stage as bold dualisms in a fascinating interplay.
Flammen
07.08.2006 Theater an der Wien
Schulhoff has composed the eleven scenes with a random virtuosity. A shadow-like flute solo is
followed by glittering orchestral waves in which the presence of […]Debussy and Strauss can be
discerned […]. A moaning Tristanic suspended second is utilised to symbolise love, […] the smouldering
fire from Don Giovanni is integrated into the composer’s stylistic layered cake and the
masked ball is as bombastic as Ben Hur. Music which is simultaneously intelligent and obsessive.
(Leipziger Volkszeitung, 20.03.1995)
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