Infernal Comedy

A concert of arias of Vivaldi, Mozart and Haydn recreated the latest theatrical adventure of John Malkovich, playing Jack Unterweger, a notorious serial killer who, between 1990 to 1992, assassinated at least 9 prostitutes in Austria, in the Czech Republic and in the United States. It's classified as comedy. How can any serial killing be a comedy beats me.

The musical-spectacle production, 'The infernal comedy - Confessions of a serial assassin', opened on Wednesday in Vienna, about the criminal in the infernal hell telling the story of his life, with comical touches in the style of Woody Allen. As counterpoint, the sopranos that represent those women who had the misfortune of crossing the path of the killer, sing classics, like Sposa, Vivaldi and Beethoven, amongst others, about bad treatments of women.

In 1974, Unterweger was condemned to life imprisonment for having strangled a young woman. While in jail he began to write and his text were appreciated by intellectuals of the German language. These soon created a committee, presenting solicitation to commute his sentence. He left prison a free man in 1989 but, within 6 months, a strangled prostitute was discovered. In her underwear, a peculiar knot was found, the same signature sign left on all his previous 9 murders, He was once again condemned to life imprisonment and, in 1994, he committed suicide in his cell. This confirms the supposition that most serial killers, when out of prison for his repeated killing, will near certainty kill again.

Malkovich was given long standing ovation by the audience. His own view of the case is that the society, and the law, had failed in this case causing yet more murders. "Those urging to save Unterweger should be put on trial" he said. I agree.

The 'Infernal comedy' will be part of the scheduled programmes of the annual festival of Castell de Pererada, the local casino of Roses, practically right at my doorstep.

Tags:serialkillers.comedy

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