This concert version of Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass is a collaboration between Suzanne Vega, Ictus Ensemble and Collegium Vocale Gent. It presents a sheer musical approach to the full score of the legendary Glass/Wilson opera where the virtuosic instrumental, singing parts and crystalline structure of the piece are enhanced by a site-specific approach.
The focus of this production is the musical score itself and the musical sound of the libretto. We opt for a long-stretched performance (very close to the full score composed for the actual opera). In this way we want to create a minimalistic sound-bath of more than 3 hours length that reconnects to the freshness and radicality of early minimalism. The door of the concert hall will be kept open throughout the performance (the audience is free to wander in and out).
It is the music making itself that will be exposed. The physical and mental challenge of making 200 minutes of music. We will show musicians at work. In a shared time and space with the audience, structured by the music, they will perform different parts from different positions on stage, share the audience view when not playing, surround them or play frontal, thus transforming the concert hall in a visual and auditive surrounding environment.
