A man is trapped in his own mindset fortress. He is lost and desires to find his way out using his self-strength and understanding instead of the evidence given by the "mysterious being". When he ignores the evidence, he is pulled back again and forced to start the same loop in different mindsets. After several warnings and falls, he finally frees himself from the fortress - isolated, and perhaps enters another fortress.
Sir Simon Rattle is joined by virtuosic soprano Barbara Hannigan for a modernist programme that showcases the immense capabilities of the London Symphony Orchestra. At the heart of this concert is The Rite of Spring. Once decried, it is now a cornerstone of orchestral repertoire and considered by many to be the greatest work of the 20th century. Its elemental nature is best summed up by Stravinsky, who, in an unaccustomed moment of humilty, said that he didn’t feel he was the composer of the piece, but simply the vessel through which it passsed. Sir Simon Rattle says: ‘I’ve been conduting it since I was 19...it’s one of those pieces that reminds you what the shock of the new is about and it’s still one of the great challenges and one of the great thrills to perform.’
Premiered in Stockholm in 1978, the work is based on a play by Michel de Ghelderode (1898-1962) and unfolds in an imaginary land inspired by the famous Dutch painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre, announces the end of the world; but in a land ruled by eros, alcohol and corruption, his plan to unleash the Apocalypse bursts like a soap bubble. LIVE RECORDING FROM THE GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU, BARCELONA, 2011
Seen from the outside, it’s an old arch-windowed house overlooking a field isolated from the center of the village. But the rooms of this dark haven of demons hide unimaginable secrets. It was within those very four walls that an artist ordained to Lucifer killed himself with a razor blade in the winter of 1931. Many occultists maintain that his ghost still wanders like a shadowy agent of evil, desecrating the bodies of those who come too close to his hypnotic, diabolical allure...
A 1970 German language drama film written and directed by Bernd Schwamm, starring Silvia M. Andragora, Michael Ande and Patrick Milton. The film screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1975.
