Organization

Singer

Tenor

Ian Bostridge

Conductor

Francesc Prat

Narrator

Pere Arquillué

Others

Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana

Cor Madrigal

Coro de L'Auditori de Barcelona

Orchestra

National Orchestra of Catalonia

L'Auditori

Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña

La peste

Barcelona

Spain

Sala 1 Pau Casals

La peste: Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

Les illuminations (The Illuminations), by Benjamin Britten, is based on a collection of fragments of poetic prose by Arthur Rimbaud. The reading of Rimbaud's poetry by the composer was profoundly striking, to the point of being one of the mainstays of all his work: a universe full of enigmatic and suggestive visions and figures. The phrase "J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage" ("Only I have the key to this wild farce"), which closes the "Parade" - the eighth movement of the work - is a key to predictable step to access the fascinating world of Britten, far beyond Les illuminations .
The cantata La Pestais based on the novel of the same name by Albert Camus, author with whom Robert Gerhard always showed a great affinity. In the words of the composer, “ The Plague is a fable and, as in all fables, animals replace man. This is not a tale of rats, but of men. It is a tale of our time. But it cannot be a story with a victorious end, but as an eternal defeat. With music of extraordinary intensity and of such absolute validity and topicality as Camus's novel, La Pesta is one of the author's greatest works, the synthesis of the musical and human journey of a whole life by the most international Catalan composer.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble