INFO
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
AUDIO // electroacustic tape
VIDEO
PRESS
It left a good part of the audience speechless… The musical discourse was in the end, the best part of the night.
La Razón – Miguel Ayanz (05-07-2005) pdf
A more effective way to wake the old stones of the theatre would have been difficult to imagine. (…) The solemnity of Beethoven, the funeral march of Lutoslawski and the cosmic air of “Infinito” by Pedro Alcalde were surrounded by a strong visual imagination and heavily supported by technology and spectacular scenery.
Abc – Miguel Ángel Lucas (2-07-2005) pdf
Mystery, fury, fire, and lights defined a large-scale spectacle with a fascinating scenography. (…) The Catalan group once again broke the boundaries of genres, striding boldly through the dark areas between extreme sounds, bursts of light and flames, gestures, and hints of menace. (…) The second part was completed with the premiere of the new composition by Pedro Alcalde, titled ∞ (Infinity). The release of Prometheus brought this dramatized symphonic concert to a close.
El País – S. Belausteguigoitia (01-07-2005) pdf
TEXTS
Virginia Woolf: The Waves, first paragraph
“The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky, except that the sea was slightly creased as if a cloth had wrinkles in it. Gradually as the sky whitened a dark line lay on the horizon dividing the sea from the sky and the grey cloth became barred with thick strokes moving, one after another, beneath the surface, following each other, pursuing each other, perpetually.”
Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, 431-435 (Chorus of the Daughters of Oceanus)
“And the waves of the sea utter a cry as they fall, the deep laments, the black abyss of Hades rumbles in response, and the streams of pure-flowing rivers lament thy piteous pain.”
(Translation: Herbert Weir Smyth, Harvard-Heinemann, 1922)