This season, the New York Philharmonic concludes their three-week-long Music of Conscience initiative, as well as their subscription season, with the world premiere of David Lang’s opera prisoner of the state on June 6–8, 2019, conducted by their new Music Director Jaap van Zweden. Co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam’s de Doelen Concert Hall, London’s Barbican Centre, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, and Bruges’s Concertgebouw, prisoner of the state is the story of a woman who disguises herself as a prison guard to rescue her husband from unjust political imprisonment…
Jacob Druckman’s Horizons
an article for an unpublished Druckman memorial edition of Contemporary Music Review, (2000), Harold Meltzer, editor. What we are celebrating with this festival is all the new music. So wrote Jacob Druckman in the program booklet for Horizons ’84, The New Romanticism – A Broader View, the second festival of three that Druckman curated for the New York Philharmonic in 1983, 1984 and 1986. The statement is not totally true – the Horizons Festivals were never supposed to be about all the new music …continue reading
After its acclaimed world premiere in June 2019 with the New York Philharmonic, David Lang’s fully-staged opera, prisoner of the state, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, begins a European premiere tour 11 January at the Barbican Centre in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and conductor Ilan Volkov.
prisoner of the state was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam’s De Doelen, London’s Barbican Centre, Barcelona’s l’Auditori, Germany’s Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Belgium’s Concertgebouw Bruges and Sweden’s Malmö Opera…
European premieresprisoner of the state David Lang, libretto/music Elkhanah Pulitzer, director Cast: Claron McFadden — the assistant Davone Tines — the jailer Alan Oke — the governor Michael Wilmering — the prisoner
(in Bochum, Rotterdam, and Bruges)
Jarrett Ott — the prisoner
(in Malmö and Barcelona)
David Lang’s prisoner of the state—co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, De Doelen, Barbican Centre, L’Auditori, Bochumer Symphoniker, Concertgebouw Bruges and Malmö Opera – premiered in June 2019 with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Jaap van Zweden, and received its British premiere in January 2020 at the Barbican Centre in London with BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and conductor Ilan Volkov…
Lang’s newest work, love fail, premieres June 29 at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Performed by the legendary vocal ensemble Anonymous 4, love fail is an evening-length work that weaves together snippets of medieval courtly love narratives, short stories by MacArthur Fellow Lydia Davis, scraps from the libretto of Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, and text by Lang himself.
Out of these sources, Lang has conjured a single story, in which two unnamed lovers meet each other, love each other, and lose each other—not necessarily in that order…
Two weeks ago I received a sad email, telling me that the composer Donald Martin Jenni had died, from a long and painful cancer. My first thought was that I was sorry I had not kept in closer contact, my second was that I was surprised to read in his obituary that he had ended up in New Orleans, with a new life and an adopted family. His life had changed so much since I had known him…
Lopatin will also present his own work with selections from of his critically acclaimed albums (Returnal and Replica) specially arranged for A Far Cry Orchestra…
On this edition of New Sounds, composer David Lang presents his CD-length ambient concerto, ”the passing measures.” The new album is a most unusual concerto for bass clarinet, chorus, and orchestra that explores mortality, time, and the function of music. As Lang explains, ”My piece is about the struggle to create beauty. A single very consonant chord falls slowly over the course of forty minutes. That is the piece.”
David Lang, music/libretto Elkhanah Pulitzer, director watch prisoner of state video playlist
David Lang’s prisoner of the state — co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, De Doelen, Barbican Centre, l’Auditori, Bochumer Symphoniker, Concertgebouw Bruges and Malmö Opera — premiered in June 2019 with the New York Philharmonic, and received its British premiere in January 2020 at the Barbican Centre in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and conductor Ilan Volkov…
“With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.”
— The New Yorker
Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms…
![[REVIEW] click to read NY Times review of 'prisoner of the state'](https://davidlang.sqcdy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/10/prisoner-review_times-cutout4.jpg)
