musicAeterna of Perm Opera / »Tristia«

A Modern Version of Dante’s Inferno

The choral opera »Tristia« was premiered in 2016 in Perm as a commission by the Russian city’s opera house. While they were working on the project together, composer Philippe Hersant was very impressed by the musical qualities of the local director of music, Teodor Currentzis, and his ensemble musicAeterna of Perm Opera. The work can now be heard in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. The original idea for »Tristia« goes back to an earlier work of Hersant’s, namely »Instants Limites«, short texts written by prison inmates such as the Russian author Ossip Mandelstam, who died in a gulag in 1938, are set to music.