Fri 8.6. 19.30 ORANGERIE
CLAUDE DEBUSSY THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1908–1917)
RECONSTRUCTED VERSION BY ROBERT ORLEDGE
JEAN EPSTEIN THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (FRANCE 1928)
(MUSIC BY VARHAN BAUER)
Edgar Allen Poe, the author of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, elevated the Gothic novel genre with his profound texts and advanced to become a pioneer of literary Symbolism. In 1908, Claude Debussy returned to his earlier idea of a creating a musical version of this work, planning an opera which would “even make stones weep”. He considered the principle motif in Poe’s work to be the illness from which he believed he was also suffering: neurasthenia. We can only guess how many doors this opera would have opened for musical theatre if Debussy had not actually been ill with cancer. At least we still possess forty-five minutes of this work preserved in this reconstructed version.
Ten years after Debussy’s death, the avant-garde director Jean Epstein selected the same plot for a silent film. Slow-motion effects and low camera angles lend the original story a touch of visionary Surrealism.
The basel sinfonietta undertakes cross-genre musical projects involving multimedia. The ensemble commissioned new music to Epstein’s film from the renowned Czech film score composer Varhan Bauer.
Mark Fitz-Gerald Musical Director
