Oratorio in three acts

Tale from Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore

What do we have to do to enter paradise? The Peri, a spirit from Persian mythology, is initially barred from entering since she is the daughter of a fallen angel and a mortal. She is forced to accept that neither heroic courage nor selfless love is enough to earn admittance. It is not until she shows pity that the gates of paradise open for her. Robert Schumann’s secular oratorio Paradise and the Peri is based on a literary fairy tale by Thomas Moore which mingles orientalism and the Romantic conception of salvation. The Peri’s three attempts to enter paradise inspired Schumann to write a score full of colour and drama which, in the apotheosis of the redeemed Peri, takes on characteristics bordering on the ecstatic. Like no other composer before him, Robert Schumann reflected intensively on linking life as an artist with salvation through art, and also tried to practise it in his marriage to his wife Clara. Director Christof Loy turns the oratorio into a psychological chamber piece that merges the character of the despairing Peri with the married life of the Schumanns. Schumann’s oratorio is complemented by piano compositions and Lieder by Robert and Clara Schumann and Pauline Viardot.

In German with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up