‘The Flying Carpet’ series: The Island of the Dead

Read by: Miriam Japp
Music: Piano duet with Vilija Poskute & Tomas Daukantas

Between 1880 and 1886, the Basel-based painter Arnold Böcklin created five similar, symbolist paintings under the title ‘The Isle of the Dead’. They captured the spirit of the fin de siècle, quickly became popular and continue to inspire numerous artists in the fields of painting, literature, music and film to this day. We bring together two works that refer to this famous subject:

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed a symphonic poem, ‘The Isle of the Dead’, Op. 29, for large orchestra in 1909; we will be treated to a version for piano four hands by the virtuoso Lithuanian piano duo Poskute & Daukantas, together with a selection from the ‘Six Pieces for Piano Four Hands’, Op. 11.

The impressive actress Miriam Japp, currently a member of the ensemble at the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, will juxtapose this with a short novel by a contemporary of Rachmaninoff: ‘The Man Who Loved Islands’ by D. H. Lawrence. Lawrence, famous for his scandalous novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, wrote this mysterious anti-Robinsonade in 1926. Even today, a hundred years later, it feels like a long-lost message in a bottle, revealing magical messages.

Flyer ‘The Flying Carpet’ Season 26/27
all eight musical and literary island journeys

Concept for ‘The Flying Carpet’: Klaus Hemmerle
In collaboration with the Theater Rigiblick Zurich