Das ist mein Gesang,
der sein musste
('This is the song
I had to sing')
'This is a world-class novel!'
Saarländischer Rundfunk about White Shroud
The life of the Lithuanian author Antanas Škėma, who is also sometimes called the 'Lithuanian Camus' due to the existential themes of his works, is marked by the disasters of the twentieth century. Born in 1910 in what is now Poland, he grew up in Russia and belonged to the generation who wanted to shape the newly independent Lithuania between the two world wars. After his participation in the uprising against the country's Soviet occupiers, Škėma escaped to Germany, where he was initially interned. However, he subsequently managed to emigrate to America. As the printing of his works was banned in Soviet Lithuania, they did not find their way there until perestroika in the late 1980s, and have since then also been rediscovered in his home country.
'One of the most beautiful and painful love stories I have ever read is concealed in this book,' says Corinna Harfouch, who has now brought Škėma's novel to the stage together with Hideyo Harada in the form of a moving collage of words and music. Together, Škėma's novel and the compositions, by composers from Bach to Stravinsky, result in a synergy that is a literary as well as a musical experience.
Corinna Harfouch is one of Germany's best-known film, TV and theatre character actresses. Memorably and masterfully, she portrays the extremes of human existence Time and again, her performances also always walk the tightrope across life's abysses. She has received numerous awards for her theatre work, including the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring prize in 1997. The multi-award-winning actress has won the Adolf-Grimme prize, for example, the Bavarian and the German film prize awards, and also the Goldene Kamera film and television award in the category best German actress.
'Whether with glowing emotion or lost in poetic reverie, whether gentle or wild: Hideyo Harada permits herself to be carried away by the music, from the softest of chords to a kind of frenzied playing, she fully exploits the sound potential of all emotions,' the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper wrote about the Japanese pianist. The artist has won prizes in numerous competitions, including the Geneva International Music Competition, and also came first in the International Schubert Competition Dortmund, for example. She performs at international festivals and gives concerts with important orchestras and chamber music partners, and has won several prizes for her CDs.
