Monday 11 January 2010

Hans Werner Henze Voices - Prison Song clips


Hans Werner Henze's Prison Song based on a poem by Ho Chi Minh, from Voices, which will be performed on Saturday 16th at the Barbican in London, part of the Henze Total Immersion day. It's not "word painting" but rather music that focuses on what it feels like to be in solitary confinement, listening to every noise around you however indistinct, like the dripping of water, the banging of doors.....

Here is a clip of how it's created in performance. I don't know if I've seen this film before. I don't know which one will be shown at the Barbican. There is a film made with the London Sinfonietta at the time Voices was premiered, which I got a lot out of but haven't seen in ten years. Please keep reading as in the next few days, I'll be writing about the opera Phaedra and more about Voices, too.

No comments: