A dramatic musical interpretation of the events of summer 1883 in Indonesia, when triple-coned volcanic island, Krakatoa, began erupting. After weeks of steadily intensifying action, the paroxysm came on 26th and 27th August. The island almost entirely destroyed itself, collapsing into the magma chamber below the ocean and producing a series of deadly tsunamis. At least 36,000 people in Java, Sumatra and other nearby islands lost their lives but the true figure is likely to be over 100,000. Hundreds of villages were washed away and when Krakatoa finally ceased erupting that October, only a caldera was left. The parts are named after Krakatoa's three cones: Perboewatan, Danan and Rakata. Perboewatan sets the scene, introducing us to a beautiful part of the world going about its business but sitting on a ticking bomb - that massive magma chamber. A gamelan-style introduction to both the region and the beautiful but uninhabited Krakatoa island gives way to a sense of foreboding as people in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) start to notice odd, vertical tremors. more