Beyond Economic And Spiritual Bankruptcy: London Philharmonic To Premiere Vladimir Martynov's Three Hour Opera "Vita Nuova" This Coming February

Vladimir Martynov's "Vita Nuova"
(world première of complete work; performed with English surtitles)









18 February 2009 7:00pm

London Philharmonic Orchestra and EuropaChorAkademie and soloists

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Tatiana Monogarova Beatrice
Mark Padmore Dante
Marianna Tarasova Amor
Joan Rodgers Secret Woman
EuropaChorAkademie

Vita Nuova, ‘the New Life’ is based on the verse by medieval Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Dante’s love for a distant Beatrice is one of the greatest depictions of the bittersweet nature of infatuation in European literature. In this musical version, Martynov - visual artist, musician and philosopher – explores opera from its Western heritage and Eastern sources. Echoes of the past pulse through this ‘virtual tone space opera’, and the resulting music is intense, mystical and expressive.

'Dante's Vita Nuova is not a text about love. It is a text about text about love. Likewise, my opera Vita Nuova is not just an opera. It is an opera about the history of opera as the most important genre in European culture. It goes back even beyond the earliest operas to reveal the genre's historical prototype - a medieval miracle, but dressed in the alluring beauty of high-Romantic operatic language.'

-- Vladimir Martynov

The performance will last approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, including interval.


Audio Sample: Extract from Martynov's Vita Nuova

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With thanks to Eamonn Quinn of the Louth Contemporary Music Society, Ireland.

The organization has just commissioned a new work from Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov; and is planning a new recording of works of Russian composer Alexander Knayfel.

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Header image credit: Dante Alighieri, painted by Giotto in the chapel of the Bargello Palace in Florence. This oldest portrait of Dante was painted during his lifetime before his exile from his native city. Via Wikipedia. With thanks.

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Harrison Birtwistle and David Harsent's The Minotaur (2008) at the not-now bankrupt Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Photo credit: (c) Bill Cooper 2008. All rights reserved. Via Boosey and Hawkes website. With thanks.