Dell'amore oscuro

In 1935, just a year before his tragic death, Federico García Lorca composed a cycle of sonnets dedicated to his lover, Juan Ramírez de Lucas. These verses, known as the Sonetos del Amor Oscuro [Sonnets of Dark Love], are a visceral explosion of passion and intimacy, possessing a profound lyrical and musical resonance. Their history is shrouded in mystery: kept secret for decades by the family, they only surfaced in 1983 through a pirated edition, instantly becoming a legendary literary touchstone. Today, these searing poems form the beating heart of a transdisciplinary dialogue that drives the artistic inquiry of Zoe-Theater im Forst. Here, the word is transmuted into body, movement and sound – an experience where the sublime meets the carnal, and love manifests as harmony, desire and living matter.

Dell’amore oscuro embraces the complexity of the original material through a creative process that intertwines dramaturgy, music and dance on a single expressive plane. Lorca’s text thus becomes the bedrock for an egalitarian dialogue between disciplines, a vital encounter free from predefined hierarchies. On stage, a live string quartet, an actor and a dancer: six bodies, guided by their respective crafts, interact to evoke the immediacy and urgency of these words. Though written by a man for a man – and for one man alone – the radical nature of these sonnets transcends the specific to become universal, evoking passion and fragility while inviting a profound, shared connection.

“Between how you love me and how I love you / Starry air, the trembling of a plant.”

The performance is in Italian, with German subtitles.

This event is anticipated by the video talk
Constance Debré in Conversation with Alice Friedland - Recorded Remotely
A former criminal lawyer from one of France’s most influential families, Constance Debré turned to writing in her early forties. This video conversation with Alice Friedland for Transart explores the evolution of her craft, her literary lineage, and her encounters with fellow writers.