After the death of his wife Marie, Paul's experience is focused only on their shared past. With the help of mementos, he has withdrawn into a "church of the past. In it, he wants to keep his relationship with Marie alive. In a dream she promises him a reunion. When he meets Marietta, a dancer who seems to be a double of his dead lover, he is overcome by passion and hope. With Marietta, he tries to seamlessly connect with what has been. But she resists being the revenant of a dead woman. In the conflict between frozen memory and disturbing reality, Paul's passion turns into madness.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was 23 years old when he created a late Romantic masterpiece of intoxicating effect with his setting of Rodenbach's symbolist cult novel to music and became famous at a stroke. One of the most frequently performed composers on German-language stages, the musical wunderkind continued his career in American exile as an Oscar-winning film composer.
