PRESS REVIEW

« An incalculable vertigo. » (Corriere della Serra, ROMA)

« Something magical happened in Rotterdam [...] Sublime experience »
(Theaterkrant, NETHERLANDS)

«At 8 o'clock sharp, almost unexpectedly, the numerical melopea that opens the opera began. From there everything happened as in one breath.» (El País, SPAIN )

« There is no doubt that this concert belongs to that select group of concerts chosen to be remembered and told. [...] We can say: we were there » (Ritmo.es)

« The radical and pure version of extraordinary Ictus Ensemble, Collegium Vocale Gent and Suzanne Vega led us to a deep concentration that enabled this new state of consciousness, what the Sanskrit called Dharana. » (El Punt Avui, BARCELONA)

« An exhaustion battle, an incredible tour-de-force [...] Suzanne Vega gave it a wonderful musical charge [...] Three memorable hours. » (Eindhovens Dagblad, NETHERLANDS)

« It has been so long since I left a theater with the conviction of having lived a crucial experience in my life as a music lover. » (Platea Magazine, BILBAO)

« The musicians on stage really outdid themselves, becoming Marvel or DC Comics figures emerging from the sand and revealing music as a special power. » (Internazionale, ROMA)

« Chemically pure. [...] We witness a total success in our eyes as the minimalist spirit of the work is perfectly captured, in a different way from what Wilson and Childs proposed. » (ForumOpera.com)

« An energetic black hole » (El Periodico, BARCELONA)

« As every time they engage with a repertoire work, Ictus Ensemble puts its special stamp on it by proposing a real new reading, rewarded by a prolonged standing ovation at the end of the performance. » (ResMusica.com)

NEW VOICE AND TEXTS

This concert performance of Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass welcomes American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewa) in the role of the narrator. Moor Mother utilizes her multi-genre practice to speak to consciousness, identity, blackness and the sociopolitical global landscape. Close to Afrofuturism, her work seeps through many genres like free jazz, electronic, blues, hip-hop and classical music.

In this new version, Moor Mother will bring in her own texts alongside the original pieces written by by Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson and Lucinda Child to give a completely new reading to the opera.

A TOUCH OF HISTORY

Einstein on the Beach was premiered in 1976, the same year as Music for Eighteen Musicians by Steve Reich: with these two masterpieces American minimalism finally came out of the shadows of the underground scene to suddenly encounter large audiences.

The piece is written for choir and amplified ensemble, a hybrid formula between chamber ensemble and a pop band (at the time modelled on the Philip Glass Ensemble): two keyboard players playing organs and synthesizers, saxophones, flutes and clarinet. In addition to that Glass calls for a soloistic violinist, who was supposed to be the incarnation of the character of Albert Einstein himself.

‘Einstein’ still bears the traces of the radical musical experiments the composer conducted in his youth that were thought of as formal ‘etudes’ (Music in Fifths, Music in Contrary Motion,...) and is developed by accumulation of very short musical motifs that are submitted to processes of augmentation or arithmetical subtraction that dazzle the listener… Some music lovers might prefer Philip Glass’s music to be played pompous and neoclassical; we kindly suggest to them to stay at home. Our heart is definitely with the esthetics of his early vinyl record North Star, 1977, in which a certain approach occurs that some critics have called “alterminimalism”.