WAR REQUIEM

Description

Staged production of this master page of universal musical literature
On the first page, Britten wrote: “My argument is war and the mercy of war. Poetry is in mercy ... all a poet can do today is warn ”.

The War Requiem , a master page of universal musical literature, was commissioned on the occasion of the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, rebuilt after its destruction by the bombings of World War II. The trauma of war and the power of a score that has not lost its ability to move us remain absolutely moving.

In this case, it is a scenic proposal signed by the photographer and visual artist Wolfgang Tillmans. With his work he amplifies the message of ending all wars that Britten advocated: a conscientious objector and a committed pacifist living in an American exile.

Despite Stravinsky's acid mockery, audiences have wanted this score to remain a reference of great emotional and moral depth, 60 years after its premiere. Tillmans, faithful to this restless spirit, opens us a fascinating window where the atrocities of man culminate in a world occupied by the vegetable kingdom. Faced with the persistence of violence and the inevitable death, the triumph of the plants foreshadowed in the action of Eugenio Ampudia's Concert for the Biocene at the theater during the pandemic.

A precious consolation and the incessant memory of the vanitas , but, at the same time, the desperate cry of a protest against the inhumanity of man himself: in your conscience, does the planet dream of its own paradise beyond man?

War Requiem
World premiere: 05/30/1962 at Coventry Cathedral.
Premiere in Barcelona: 10/31/1977 at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
Premiere at the Liceu: 07/03/2010.
Last audition at the Liceu: 07/06/2010.
Total auditions at the Liceu: 2.

Approximate total duration1h 38m

Artistic file
Stage direction - Daniel kramer
Scenography and video creation - Wolfgang Tillmans
Replacement - Elaine tyler-hall
Choreography - Ann yee
Dramaturgy - Luc joosten
Co-scenography - Justin nardella
Locker room - Nasir mazhar
illumination - -Charles Balfour
Choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Conxita Garcia, director)
VEUS Children's Choir - Friends of the Unió de Granollers (Josep Vila i Jover, director)
Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
director - Josep Pons

Distribution
Soprano - Tatiana Pavlovskaya
Tenor - Mark padmore
Baritone - Matthias goerne