![[AUDIO] prisoner of the state](https://davidlang.sqcdy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/11/pots-pic-500x500.jpg)
By Anne Midgette
Classical music critic
Dec. 10, 2019
People often ask: Why can’t we update old operas for our time? With “Prisoner of the State,” David Lang has done just that. He remakes Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio,” a problem child of the repertory, into a new work that hews to the original in form while underscoring its relevance to today’s society…
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I wouldn’t say that I am super religious, but I am definitely religion-curious. It is a big part of my family background, and, to be honest, a big part of the history of my chosen field, Western classical music. For the past 1000 years, the church has been the most powerful commissioner of Western music, and its most active employer of musicians.
Because of this, much of our foundational repertoire is explicitly on the subject of how music helps a listener get in the mood for a religious experience…
continue readingNow featured on the international bestselling album I See You by British band The xx.
Listen to Lang’s original work here
See the UK premiere at the Royal College of Music
Perform just (after song of songs) with your ensemble!
June 6-8, 2019, music director Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic gave the world premiere of David Lang’s new, fully-staged opera, prisoner of the state, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer.
Rome is the set for Torino Vocal Ensemble, as they record David’s piece ‘I lie’ for Paolo Sorrentino’s new film La Grande Bellezza, conducted by Carlo Boccadoro. The film’s soundtrack also includes David’s ‘world to come.’
Here’s a short clip of the group behind the scenes:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSSqZug3B-E width:300]November 9-11, The Nashville Opera presents David Lang’s chamber opera the difficulty of crossing a field.
With this work, Lang and multi-Obie award-winning playwright Mac Wellman have created a radical cross between opera and theater mixing arias with spoken text, emotional melodies with intense drama, and featuring a string quartet as both the ‘orchestra’ and as part of the staging.
Based on a one-page short story by American satirist and abolitionist author,
continue readingNPR Music announced their 25 Favorite Albums of the Year (so far)… and David Lang’s ‘death speaks’ is on their list!
Here’s what they have to say about it:
You probably wouldn’t expect The National‘s Bryce Dessner and My Brightest Diamond‘s Shara Worden to work on a classically focused project inspired by Franz Schubert, but that’s exactly what happens within composer David Lang‘s amazing Death Speaks, which also features Nico Muhly playing piano and Owen Pallett on violin…
continue readingOn April 25-27, at the Garnisonskirken in Copenhagen, the Theatre of Voices with condutor Paul Hillier present music from the film The Great Beauty by director Paolo Sorrentino, featuring music by David Lang.
Lang’s i lie, wed, head hear, and Simple Song #3 (from Sorrentino’s YOUTH) will be performed alondside works by Arvo Pärt and Jóhann Jóhannson…