The Flying Carpet: The Island of the Dead

Between 1880 and 1886, the Basel-based painter Arnold Böcklin created five similar, symbolist paintings, which came to be known as “The Isle of the Dead”. They perfectly captured the spirit of the fin de siècle and quickly became popular. Some regard “The Isle of the Dead” as a swan song to European culture on the threshold of the technologised twentieth century. To this day, it has inspired and influenced countless artists in painting, literature, music and film. We bring together two works that relate to this subject:

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) composed a symphonic poem, ‘The Isle of the Dead’, Op. 29, for large orchestra in 1909; we will be treated to a version for piano four hands by the virtuoso Lithuanian piano duo Poskute & Daukantas from Winterthur, together with a selection from the ‘Six Pieces for Piano Four Hands’, Op. 11.

The impressive actress Miriam Japp, currently a member of the ensemble at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, will contrast this with a short novel by a contemporary of Rachmaninoff: “The Man Who Loved Islands” by D.H. Lawrence. Lawrence (1885–1930), who rose to fame with his scandalous novel *Lady Chatterley’s Lover*, wrote this short, mysterious anti-Robinsonade in 1926, and even today, a hundred years later, it reveals magical messages, like a long-lost message in a bottle. His island is the spiritual realm of a utopia far removed from the world corrupted by ‘modernity’.

D. H. Lawrence’s magnificent tale of the abysses of human existence is the story of a man who dares to withdraw from the world to feel the tides and the vibrations of the soul, until he is finally all alone, alone with the sea.

This performance is part of the series ‘The Flying Carpet – Eight Literary and Musical Island Journeys’.
A season ticket is also available for this series. 8 performances for the season ticket price of CHF 240. Order at info@theater-rigiblick.ch