Schulhoff: Flammen

Flammen is the most purely erotic opera you'll ever hear. The story is a heavily symbolic take on the Don Juan legend. The Don is actually cursed to go through life seducing women whether he wants to or not. Women can't resist him, and he can't stop himself. Even Death (a woman, of course) spends the whole opera chasing after him, though she can never claim him. For just as he reaches the height of boredom and self-disgust, he shoots himself in the head and comes back to life, young and virile, to begin the cycle all over again. Schulhoff was just one of many talented Jewish composers murdered by the Nazis whose music is now being rediscovered, and this is his masterpiece. It's a magnificent achievement, superbly performed and recorded. --David Hurwitz