Infinite Now

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Infinite Now by Chaya Czernowin is the fruit of a montage of a short story by the Chinese author Can Xue and a selection of texts written on the front during the First World War: a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, À l’Ouest, rien de nouveau. In the two situations, a deadlocked situation for which nobody knows the solution, a world war or intimate destitution. Awake our senses to the most minute and tangible changes; this is Czernowin’s compositional hallmark, her attention to the physical and spatial parameters of music, the weight, the textures, the effects of distance, of strangeness, of tearing apart. An opera or an electronic landscape? This ambiguity and changes in scale are the cornerstones of Infinite Now. Chaya Czernowin Infinite Now Commissioned by the  Opera Vlaanderen, National Theater Mannheim, IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Libretto by Chaya Czernowin and Luk Perceval based on the texts by Erich Maria Remarque and Can Xue Opera Vlaanderen Symphonic Orchestra Karen Vourc’h Soprano Kai Rüütel Mezzo-Soprano Noa Frenkel Alto Terry Wey Countertenor Vincenzo Neri Baritone David Salsberry Fry Bass Nico Couk Guitar Yaron Deutsch Electric Guitar Séverine Ballon, Christina Meissner Cellos Didier De Neck, Roy Aernouts, Gilles Wellinski, Oana Solomon, Benjamin-Lew Klon, Rainer Süβmilch Actors Luk Perceval Stage Director Philip Bussmann Set Designer, Video Ilse Vandenbussche Costume Designer Philip Bussmann, Luk Perceval Lights Carlo Laurenzi IRCAM Computer Music Design Sylvain Cadars IRCAM Sound Engineer

Infinite Now by Chaya Czernowin is the fruit of a montage of a short story by the Chinese author Can Xue and a selection of texts written on the front during the First World War: a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, À l’Ouest, rien de nouveau. In the two situations, a deadlocked situation for which nobody knows the solution, a world war or intimate destitution.

Awake our senses to the most minute and tangible changes; this is Czernowin’s compositional hallmark, her attention to the physical and spatial parameters of music, the weight, the textures, the effects of distance, of strangeness, of tearing apart. An opera or an electronic landscape? This ambiguity and changes in scale are the cornerstones of Infinite Now.

Chaya Czernowin Infinite Now Commissioned by the Opera Vlaanderen, National Theater Mannheim, IRCAM-Centre Pompidou and Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.

Libretto by Chaya Czernowin and Luk Perceval based on the texts by Erich Maria Remarque and Can Xue
Opera Vlaanderen Symphonic Orchestra
Karen Vourc’h Soprano
Kai Rüütel Mezzo-Soprano
Noa Frenkel Alto
Terry Wey Countertenor
Vincenzo Neri Baritone
David SalsberryFry Bass
Nico Couk Guitar
Yaron Deutsch Electric Guitar
Séverine Ballon, Christina Meissner Cellos
Didier De Neck, Roy Aernouts, Gilles Wellinski, Oana Solomon, Benjamin-Lew Klon, Rainer Süβmilch Actors
Luk Perceval Stage Director
Philip Bussmann Set Designer, Video
Ilse Vandenbussche Costume Designer
Philip Bussmann, Luk Perceval Lights
Carlo Laurenzi IRCAM Computer Music Design
Sylvain Cadars IRCAM Sound Engineer

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An Opera Vlaanderen, National Theater Mannheim, IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, Philharmonie de Paris coproduction. This project has received the “Centenary” certification from the World War 1 Centenary Partnership Program.