Schulhoff: Flammen

In the 1920s and 30s, Czechoslovakia was flourishing culturally and boasted a multi-faceted musical scene. In considering the works of composers such as Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff, we can see how they develop along similar stylistic lines, as measured against the established 'Prague School', which was a counter-movement to the 'Viennese School'. Schulhoff's early works feature a Reger-influenced late Romantic approach that later developed, through an emphasis on rhythm, towards expressionism and neo-classicism, while also including elements of jazz. The starting point for Flammen is the Don Juan story, but the aim of Beneš and Schulhoff's work is not to present the colourful seducer, but the fate of a man driven by his desires and needs who cannot even remotely find happiness and peace in constancy. In his opera, Schulhoff brilliantly manages to reconcile this different dramaturgical approach with a kind of distanced homage to Mozart's work.