Two new requiems for a changing world premiere in Venice and Strasbourg

Two major musical works premiered in September 2021, each framed as a requiem for a new world. In Venice, at the Basilica San Giovani e Paolo on September 16, composer Zad Moultaka presented 'Requiem for a New World', a post-Covid work with a libretto by 96-year-old poet Etel Adnan. It was performed by conductor Roland Hayrabedian using an acousmonium of speakers, following a performance of Stravinsky's 'Requiem Canticles' in the same church where Stravinsky's funeral was held on April 15, 1971. Adnan's text, originally 'Requiem for the Lost Paradise', imagines an astronaut angel rescuing humanity from a decaying Earth. Countertenor Raffaele Pe performed. Concurrently, at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg from September 15 to October 3 as part of the Musica festival, Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen's opera 'The Snow Queen', based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale, was staged. Directed by James Bonas with video by Grégoire Pont, it features a bass-voiced Snow Queen and roles for children sung by soprano and mezzo-soprano. Abrahamsen, who stopped composing for a decade in the 1990s, explores themes of cold and existential anxiety. The article connects both premieres to the 50th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's death, noting his 'Requiem Canticles' premiered at Princeton on October 8, 1966, and were played at his Venetian funeral. Moultaka's piece references Yuri Gagarin's 1968 death and Adnan's earlier 'Funeral March for the First Astronaut'.