S O M M E R K O N Z E R T 2024 am 20.07.2024 at 20:00 h
Archöologischer Park Cambodunum ( kleine Thermen ) Kempten
with the Orchesterverein Kempten (cond. Mary Ellen Kitchens)
The Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138) wrote this poem on his deathbed – in great fear of the grey Hades. Yet the longing for life, for beauty, for the brightness of existence was so strong that one of the most beautiful poems of this era was written in this hopeless plight. The words almost sing, the joie de vivre is physically palpable, and the language is so skilful that only approximate translations are possible that attempt to come close to the poetically playful original. The poem has remained, it has survived the ages, admired, read, quoted and passed on. The grey night of death could not erase everything, Hadrian’s “animula vagula blandula” lives on in the poem.