Andriessen: towards Dante's La Commedia(January 2008) Los Angeles audiences were granted a preview taster of Louis Andriessen’s much anticipated Dante-inspired stagework La Commedia, which opens at the Holland Festival on 12 June.
The City of Dis or The Ship of Fools, which forms the first part of the ‘film opera’, was premiered at Disney Hall by the Los Angeles Master Chorale on 18 November conducted by Grant Gershon. The Los Angeles Times described Andriessen’s new work as “brilliantly disquieting” with “the bright, brazen sound that is unmistakeably his”: “Despite a certain resemblance to the worst scenes from Baghdad, Andriessen’s Dis is a universal city. And this most urban of composers celebrates sex in the city and compassion, while acknowledging death and destruction… Andriessen is as deadly serious a composer as any I know, but he also has a fully developed sense of irony and wondrous appreciation of, and perhaps fondness for, folly… Andriessen likens The Ship of Fools to a metaphor for life – namely, we sail through existence doing business, getting drunk, muddling through. “Instrumental combinations proved breathtaking. A solo viola, solo alto and guitar, in a kind of Stravinskyan bebop, announce “a thousand angels fallen from heaven”. A contrabass clarinet and electric bass guitar together are “turbid waves”. Clattering metal are Messiaen taken to a new dimension. The storm at the end wickedly rattles a listener’s bones.” Los Angeles Times La Commedia (2004-08) (world premiere) Film opera in five parts Texts by Dante, Vondel and others, and from the Old Testament Electronic inserts by Anke Brouwer Commissioned by the Netherlands Opera Reinbert de Leeuw Conductor Hal Hartley Director Beatrice: Claron McFadden Dante: Cristina Zavalloni Lucifer: Jeroen Willems Asko Ensemble/Schoenberg Ensemble/Synergy Vocals Netherlands Opera 12/14/15/16/17/18 June 2008 Holland Festival Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam www.dno.nl > Further information on Work: The City of Dis or: The Ship of Fools Photo: Francesca Patella > News Search |
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