PRODUCTION CREDITS

Music: Pedro Alcalde
General title: Organ of Light – Dramatized Concert on the Myth of Prometheus
Stage director: La Fura dels Baus: Carlus Padrissa
Orchestra: Orquesta de Extremadura
Conductor: Jesús Amigo

Premiered by the Fura dels Baus
Festival: Mérida Classical Theatre Festival – Opening 51st edition
Venue: Roman Theatre
Date: 30th June 2005

BACKGROUND
La Fura dels Baus was commissioned to open the 51st edition of the Mérida Festival with a dramatized concert on the myth of Prometheus. The script for the final part of the performance focused on the moment when the centaur Chiron dies, willingly giving up his immortality in the form of a mantle to Prometheus. Chiron is released by death from the constant pain caused by the accidental wound inflicted by Heracles and Prometheus is deified receiving the gift of immortality.

TITLE
Infinite, represented by the mathematical symbol “∞” in the hand programme at the premiere, concentrates in one word the temporal image of immortality. It is that image of endless time upon which the composition is built.

MUSIC
Death and immortality have eternity in common. It seemed appropriate to use elements traditionally associated with the funeral march to characterise the transition to the other eternal condition, thus stressing the infinite abyss that opens in both circumstances. Two literary passages, one written by Virginia Woolf and the other by Aeschylus, inspired the audible presence of a continuous wave (mixed with an electroacoustic elaboration of the A tone) both at the introduction and end of the piece.

SOUND PALETTE
1- Orchestra pit: orchestra 2-2-2-2 / 2-2 / timpani, campanelli, harp / strings
2- On the stage: bass drum, tam-tam, suspended cymbals, bass bell
3- Behind the stage: electroacoustic elaboration of the Flageolett “wie ein Naturlaut” at the beginning of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony mixed with the sound of a wave (audio)

MEDIUM
Score and Tape

DURATION
14’

PROGRAMME
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony nr. 7 op. 92
– – –
Witold Lutoslawski: Musique funèbre a la mémoire de Béla Bartók
Pedro Alcalde: ∞ – Infinito