1001 Nacht

A good cliffhanger is essential: only those almost bursting with curiosity at the end of a story stay on the ball, wanting to know how it continues as soon as possible. Directors of soap operas and television series use this trick, which they might have borrowed from Scheherazade: a Persian king married her for one day and one night, after that she was to die. With imagination and cleverly placed cliffhangers, Scheherazade told the king stories for one thousand and one nights, recounting tales of seafarers, princesses, murders, miracles and, of course, true love. A life-saving recipe for success, as it turned out. In his world- famous symphonic poem based on motifs of Scheherazade’s narrative flow, Nicolai Rimsky- Korsakov makes the sea roar and the stars glitter in the sky above the desert – with such beauty that one could also spend two thousand and one nights listening. In the rest of the programme, it’s not Scheherazade, but the star baritone Christian Gerhaher singing about longing, twilight and death – in Berlioz’ Summer Nights, there isn’t a cliffhanger in sight.