- click for larger image -From Act I
IRENE. (..)
I ‘ve been looking for you for such a long time.
RUBEK.
When did you begin to look for me, Irene?
IRENE (with an ironical smile).
From the moment I realized I had given you something I couldn’t do without, Arnold.
Something one should never part with.
RUBEK (bows his head).
Yes, that is horribly true. You Gave me four years of your youth. (…) All your naked
beauty you gave me...
IRENE.
You’ve forgotten the most precious gift I gave you. (..) I gave you my soul –
young and alive. And left myself empty; soul-less. Don’t you see? That’s why I
died, Arnold.
Transl. by Michael Meyer. |
|
The artist Arnold
Rubek has achieved international fame, mainly because of his masterpiece "The day of
Resurrection". He returns home after a long stay abroad with his young wife
Maja: Their relationship has cooled somewhat. At the sanatorium where they are staying, a
woman in white appears, escorted by a nurse. She turns out to be Irene, Rubek's model and
muse when he was young, and the lover he let down. She has been in and out of the asylum,
and when she sees Rubek she accuses him of having ruined her life, having made her into a
"living dead". Rubek admits his mistake and wants her back, also to help his
art, because she may help him regain his creative force. The two of them take to the
mountains and reach a sort of reconciliation, but on the way to the top they are killed in
an avalanche. |
1899