Die Zauberinsel

Heinrich Sutermeister wrote the libretto of his opera Die Zauberinsel himself, based on ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare, combining the text with German Baroque poems which he incorporated into the dramatic structure. His aim was to adapt the piece musically – not literally, but in essence – and express in his music the magic that attracted him in ‘The Tempest’, the focus being on the transience of all earthly things which culminates in Prospero’s monologue in the second part of the opera. But true to the original, the central idea is the triumph of love over the trials and tribulations of everyday life. The magic island, the realm of the imagination, itself now becomes the centre of gravity, and enters the transcendental.