‘Cadere ad inferos’ shows the fall into hell of a man who has sinned, thus damning his soul for eternity. There is a continuous dialogue between light and darkness, heaven and hell. The music chosen, all by great polyphonists of the Spanish school, becomes the main narrator of this journey through two such contrasting planes. Moreover, it will be in charge of passing sentence on the condemned soul, leaving the door open to redemption and forgiveness.
The man knows that something tremendous is coming. Silence reigns before the tremendous struggle ahead. He has not turned his thoughts to heaven for many years as he knows his actions have not been the right ones. In a last leap of faith in the face of the impending misfortune, his soul begs the Queen of Heaven for mercy and protection, Salve Regina.
Sadness assails the man, remorse takes hold of him. Despite his pleas, silence continues to haunt him. The greyness tinges his existence with a regretful tone. He needs a sign, even if it hurts him: If I do not taste your sorrows, O my Jesus, I live sad and sorrowful. The answer is not long in coming. The man has betrayed the principles to which he had consecrated himself. Temptation has overcome him: he has sinned. The infernal poison has profaned heavenly purity. He had but One hour to resist, and instead, treachery has seized any trace of good intention that might remain in his already corrupt soul. A disloyal spirit reaching out into the vapours of the deep.
The man's troubled soul stirs restlessly, what is to become of him? He cries out to heaven for help, Hei mihi, Domine, beginning his misfortune. Isaiah already prophesied: Hypocritae, bene prophetavit, the people honour me with their lips, but it is their heart that is far from me. What defiles man is what comes from his heart, from there come evil thoughts and sinful actions, the mouth and the lips are only mere carriers. Man knows that his heart is defiled. He begins his descent.
Just as the Morning Star was expelled from paradise, so the soul of man begins its descent into hell. On his way he sees only destruction and hears the lamentations of a people who, in the same situation, yearn for past glory and still desperately wait for help to come. A sad, desperate dialogue between two forces that oppose each other from the depths of their essence. Despite all its mistakes, the light struggles to free itself from the yoke of the shadow. That which belongs to the heavenly realms cannot remain subjugated in the underworld.
At the end of the descent man is ready to be judged. Heaven and earth are shaken, that terrible day that man foretold has come. Could anyone save his polluted heart? Free me, free me’, the prayer floods his whole head, drowning out all other thoughts. Tenebrae factae sunt, darkness falls, no one has come to his desperate call. His punished soul has not found ethereal rest. The trial concludes, for the last time, man commends himself to the Saviour.
He has only one hope left, redemption. Versa est in luctum, his soul has plunged into mourning about to be devoured by the flames of hell. In a last breath of hope the man cries out ‘forgive me, Lord, for my days are nothing’. After this heart-rending plea, silence. Revealing and eternal.
