Melancholia

About

This production is a staged song evening based on Robert Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe. The cycle traces a path from the awakening of love to painful heartbreak. Composed in 1840, Schumann’s “year of song,” it was created in view of his marriage to Clara Wieck and sets 16 poems from Heinrich Heine’s Buch der Lieder. Under the title “Melancholia,” the cycle becomes the point of departure for a scenic study by KUG voice students. The concept and staging are by Professor Ingo Kerkhof. The production expands the musical scope beyond Schumann to include works by Clara Schumann, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Henry Purcell. The stage is conceived as an experimental setup with a cool, scientific aesthetic that contrasts with the Romantic origins of the work. Love is examined as a condition that can be both vividly present and “long since dead.”