Lebensrätsel

It begins with one of the most famous sunrises in music history: radiant and majestic,
maximum intensity of light, from zero to one hundred within seconds. Also sprach
Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) by Richard Strauss is a grandiose masterwork, its glory leaving no one unmoved. In this symphonic poem, the composer pays homage to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and anyone who has ever heard its first few measures never forgets them. It’s no coincidence that this stunning opening is often and widely quoted, in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey as much as by Elvis Presley or in the advertisement for a familiar German brand of beer. Proof that outstanding quality may also come with its drawbacks … The »eternal recurrence of the same« is a central thesis in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. Love and passion, the lynchpin of all human existence, are also continuously repeated, determining beginnings and endings, embodying life’s mysteries and solutions in one. In what may be his most suggestive opera, Richard Wagner pays homage to the hapless lovers Tristan and Isolde. Even its orchestral prelude seems inebriating and full of mystery. In its ecstatic finale, the wonderful Christiane Karg, in the role of Isolde, praises the consummation of a love which is impossible on earth in otherworldly, better realms.