The article is devoted to comparison between the novel "The Dead Bruges" (1892) by the Belgian symbolist writer Georges Rodenbach and the opera «The Dead City» (1920) by the Austrian composer E. W. Korngold written on this plot. Rodenbach’s novel is a classic of the decadence with its cult of the fading. Bruges once abandoned by its residents is a symbol of death and silence. The image of dead city with frozen water channels, monotonous sound of bells, deserted quays has become a key to the work. Maeterlinck’s atmosphere of ossification and torpor is alien to Korngold. He is far from the decadent cult of death. In the opera the study of madness is accentuated and life is contrasted with death. The protagonist who moved to Bruges after the death of his wife, does not kill his sweetheart; everything that happens to him is just a terrible vision caused by mind aberration. In Korngold’s interpretation the dead city is an alter ego of the main character, turning into the landscape of the subconscious, which gives birth to bizarre visions. However, there is no analogy with the expressionist drama. Korngold opposes life to death and completes the opera with life-affirming ending. This optimistic concept was probably inspired by the composer’s father, a famous music critic Julius Korngold known as a reactionary and an opponent of the newest trends in music. Thus the plot is transported to another era, which is not only familiar with Freud’s discoveries concerning the unconscious, but also overcomes the temptations of individualism in the anti-romantic rebellion.
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