St. Jago

The principal voice in the musical-dramatic tale is the language of Kleist, in itself already highly musical in timbre and syntactic structure. […] The novella Das Erdbeben in Chili [The Earthquake in Chile] forms a quasi recurrent theme. The text is not transformed musically, for example incorporated in a musical setting, but is presented in musical form: in a particular tempo and dynamic level and also in a particular tonal colouring. This transformation occurs on the one hand according to musical criteria, e.g. a serial order of the types of speech and motif-like relationships on a higher level – on the other hand, psychic moods – ‘atmospheres’ – are conveyed though musical rhetoric. […] Each individual section has a particular method of performance in which its innermost content is expressed. Thus in the first section, the text of the tale ‘Der Todesschuss’ [The Fatal Shot] is spoken hesitatingly and softly; in the second section, ‘Das Geheimnis’ [The Secret], whispered rapidly, in the following section, ‘Der Skandal’ [The Scandal], sonorously, but in a sneering tone. Through this manner of expression, undertones come to the surface and deeper layers of the text are made accessible. […] The four sections of the ‘musical action’ depict essential moments of the novella and also utilise Kleist’s poetry: ‘Tremors’, ‘Night of Love’, ‘Day of Peace’ and ‘Death Orgy’. These are interludes which act as summaries. Words and music are combined in the prelude and postlude in which the subject is the poet himself. Extracts from Kleist’s letters from his later period run through the prelude ‘End of Kleist’ and utopian passages from his wonderful essay ‘On Marionette Theatre’ are quoted throughout the postlude. (Dieter Schnebel. Source: Hamburg State Opera 1991)