Work of the Week – Hans Werner Henze: El Cimarrón

By Christopher Peter
18 May 2026

Abstract banner showing a portrait‑like figure (Hans Werner Henze) in the foreground. The background features textured blue and ochre tones and a broken chain as a central graphic element.

This work is a declaration. El Cimarrón is one of the compositions in which Hans Werner Henze inseparably linked music, politics and biography. Written in 1969/70 after a journey to Cuba, it recounts the life of the runaway slave Esteban Montejo – and articulates Henze’s conviction that music must take a stand.

In colonial Cuba, the term cimarrón referred to an escaped slave. Montejo’s memories – recorded by the ethnologist Miguel Barnet and adapted for Henze by Hans Magnus Enzensberger – resist heroic narratives of liberation. They speak of violence, isolation and distrust toward promises of freedom. Liberty appears not as an achievement, but as a fragile, unresolved condition.

Musically, El Cimarrón is conceived as a “recital for four musicians”: baritone, flute, guitar and percussion form an ensemble of equals. The singer acts as narrator, witness and commentator. Speech, song, ritual, sound and improvisation merge into a form that deliberately crosses the boundary between concert and music theatre.

Henze, Art and Resistance – A Work of Enduring Relevance

El Cimarrón stands at the heart of Henze’s politically engaged oeuvre. As in The Raft of the Medusa, Das verratene Meer or The Weiden, the focus is not ideology but lived experience: oppression, power and alienation. For Henze, music was an ethical practice – an art of questioning rather than assertion.

In the context of Henze’s 100th birthday on 1 July 2026, now commemorated worldwide with performances and symposia, the work’s relevance could hardly be clearer. Structural violence, colonial history and the complexity of freedom are as urgent today as they were when the piece was written. El Cimarrón refuses simplification – and gains its force from that refusal.

This Werk der Woche coincides with the premiere of a new production at the Teatro Nazionale in Rome, directed by Michael Kerstan, chairman of the Henze Foundation. Performers include Robert Koller (baritone), Camilla Hoitenga (flute), Ivan Mancinelli (percussion) and Christina Schorn‑Mancinelli (guitar). The production forms part of Rome’s Henze centenary programme.

Further performances of El Cimarrón are scheduled for 1 July 2026, Theater Gütersloh, 18 July 2026, Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix‑en‑Provence, and from 23 January 2027, Hamburg State Opera.