The inspiration for creating the scenario of my opera came from two sources from Ancient Greece and Rome — Plato's "allegory of the cave" and Pliny the Elder's story about the Origin of Painting from Shadows.

Plato in his text depicts a group of people who had lived being chained in a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they cannot see. Such prisoners would mistake appearances for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (i.e. the shadows) were real.

Another source for the scenario is a mythical tale by Pliny the Elder: a Corinthian maiden traces the shadow of her departing lover. An image of him is captured by the work of her hand: it is thus that painting is born.

Both of these stories are based on different interpretations of the phenomenon of the shadow. For Plato the shadow is a reflection of the world of ideas (Eidos') in the mundane world. For Pliny the shadow presents a mediator between the mundane world and the world of art. In my scenario I combined together these two ideas and developed them in their interconnection into another form. Contrary to Plato's concept, in the scenario it is particularly Art which is able to unbind the prisoner from the cave. And contrary to Pliny, a shadow is something much more significant than merely an optic phenomenon. True understanding and true art manifest themselves upon in surpassing the boundary conditioned by the shadow.

The composition of the opera is based on parallel development and collision of two blocks. The first block symbolizes Allegories of the different Arts. It is presented by three sopranos and a female-dancer. It is Art in the opera that presents a beacon for the Prisoners on their way out of the cave.

The second block symbolizes the Prisoners in the cave. It is presented by a male vocal trio and a male dancer. In working on the opera, I was inspired by two well-known triple-sculptural compositions: the antique Three Graces, which present prototypes of three Forms of Arts in the opera and a fragment of Rodin's sculptural group "The Gates of Hell". It presents three figures, which upon closer examination turn out to be replicas of one and the same figure, however, seen from different visual angles.

In the scenario of my opera the Prisoners try to approach the three Arts, come too closely to the Light and, hence, become blind and perish, because of the harsh effect from them dazzling sunlight. In addition, as a result of too close a contact with humans the three Arts become "menschlich zu menschlich" [human, all too human] (according to Nietzsche), go through a state of decadence and also die. Only one of Prisoners — the Dancer — finds the way to the Light at the end of the opera.

The orchestra consists of two chamber ensembles, placed on two balconies – to the left and to the right of the stage. The first ensemble always plays with the trio of the Arts and symbolizes the idea of Light. The second ensemble plays with the trio of Prisoners and symbolizes the Cave and Darkness.

The composition consists of nine scenes. The purely instrumental scenes consist of a prelude and two interludes, the latter forming variations. These episodes form the setting for the dance element in the opera. The collision of the Prisoners and the Arts take place during the vocal scenes. The vocal and instrumental scenes alternate constantly in the first part of the opera. The Finale presents a large through-composed movement which brings together all the participants in this composition. The Arts and the Prisoners move towards their respective ensembles on the balconies and out of their breathing the key words of the opera arise: A-tem, A-sche, Scha-tten and so on (Breath, Ash, Shadows).

Selections from texts by Dante (the "Divine Comedy", sung by the male trio), Leonardo da Vinci ("Dispute between the Arts", sung by the female trio) and Nietzsche ("Jenseits von Gut und Bose") are used in the opera. The compilation of the texts as well as several additional fragments has been made by Ralph Mohnnau.