Hindemith: Sancta Susanna

Overview

Klementia, who has been a nun for several years, is troubled by an apparition of Saint Susanna. The latter, performed by Anna Caterina Antonacci, lifts the veil on a carnal world she finds disturbing. Encouraged to confide by this awakening, Klementia recounts the passion of a young girl in the convent who many years before had stripped naked and embraced the body of Christ on the Cross. Darkness and light, life and death, body and soul all struggle and dialogue in this short, smouldering work in which the biblical figure of Susanna takes on an unparalleled psychological dimension.