Wilde: De Profundis: The Exiles of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) personal life, brought into the glare of public scrutiny during his trial for homosexuality, intruded on society’s appreciation of his genius. Humiliated, exiled from society, and sentenced to two years of forced labor, Wilde became a thoroughly different person after his imprisonment.
This concert focuses on Wilde’s prison ordeal and the two years that he spent in exile in Paris after being freed from the prison of Reading. A script based on his correspondence, plays, and short stories provide a dramatic backdrop for music by French and English composers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Wilde: De Profundis: The Exiles of Oscar Wilde was part of our 2009-2010 Season.
2009-2010 Season
Artists in Exile
The Ensemble for the Romantic Century celebrated its ninth season by examining the lives of exiled artists from the perspective of spiritual, emotional, and intellectual displacements, a counterpart to exile as political isolation that formed the subject of our previous season. The condition of exile, understood as a removal from ordinary society, can also be seen as a symbolic need for the creative artist, who must often seek refuge in a closed-off inner world.
This sense of artistic isolation was the focus of the 2009-2010 season.
More from our 2009-2010 Season: