Work of the Week - Erwin Schulhoff: Flammen

A different kind of tribute to Mozart: in his approach to the Don Juan myth, Schulhoff does not portray the bon vivant as a compulsive lecher but as a man forever driven by his desires. Unlike Mozart’s Don Giovanni the protagonist is not dragged down to hell but is condemned, like Wagner’s Dutchman, to an eternal search for love and salvation. On 7 August, KlangBogen Festival in Vienna presents the Austrian premiere of Schulhoff’s extraordinary and rarely performed opera Flammen which had received its world premiere more than 60 years after it was completed.