This dramatised concert of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach (1976), featuring singer Suzanne Vega, the seven-musician Ictus Ensemble and the 12-singer Collegium Vocale Gent, under the baton of Georges-Elie Octors, is a must. A fresh, radical show where the wall between the performers and the audience seems to melt down.
The production highlights the sound in the original opera, and so it is similar in length to it. It is the creation of the music itself that is being shown: the musicians working on the stage and a wonderful Suzanne Vega singing, reciting and acting. The result is a powerful vocal collage that turns the Arriaga Theatre into an overpowering audio visual setting where the artists and the audience share the same space, time and even point of view.
The team
Einstein on the Beach, by Philip Glass
Music by: Philip Glass
Texts by: Christopher Knowles, Samuel M. Johnson, Lucinda Childs
Vocal performance: Suzanne Vega
Conductor: Georges-Elie Octors
Artistic advisor: Tom De Cock
Set design: Germaine Kruip
Dramaturgy: Maarten Beirens
ICTUS ENSEMBLE
Violin: Igor Semenoff
Flute: Michael Schmid, Chryssi Dimitriou
Keyboards: Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Jean-Luc Plouvier
Bass clarinet, soprano saxophone: Dirk Descheemaeker
Alto, soprano saxophone: Asagi Ito
Sound design: Alexandre Fostier
Production: Wilfried Van Dyck
COLLEGIUM VOCALE GENT
Sopranos: Joowon Chung, Magdalena Podkościelna, Charlotte Schoeters
Contraltos: Sofia Gvirts, Karolina Hartman, Cécile Pilorger
Tenors: Malcolm Bennett, Peter Di-Toro, Hitoshi Tamada
Basses: Charles Dekeyser, Julian Millán, Bart Vandewege
Passes
07:00pm
Prices
from €12 to €42 /discounts
Friends of the Arriaga: From 25 to 35%Groups, young people, over 65s, the unemployed, large families and people with disabilities in excess of 33%: 25%
Dance Professionals: 25%
Last minute discount (for the previous groups, except Friends of the Arriaga): 50%
Last minute discount for Young Friend of the Arriaga: 70%
Disabled persons in a wheelchair: 50% (in the proscenium, balcony and a companion)
Duration
3 hours 20 min.