A MULTIMEDIA IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION
The Alchemical, New York
2020
Music Director / Sara Chiesa
Set Designer / Jungah Han
Video Projections Designer / Andrew Garvis
Costume Designer / Asa Benally
Soprano / Cristina Bakhoum Sanchez
Photography / Lucas Godlewski
Production available for touring and rental / Contact
This production reimagined Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder) as a staged performance at The Alchemical, New York’s experimental white-box venue, bringing the art songs to life through a multimedia immersive theatrical experience that fuses contemporary installation art, video, immersive theater, and music. Traditionally a concert work, the songs are Strauss' final works written in the last moments of the composer's life, setting poems by Hermann Hesse that explore the individual's relationship with mortality. First performed by Kirsten Flagstad with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall after the composer’s death in 1948, the Four Last Songs are widely regarded as one of Strauss’ greatest works. While in recent years concert works such as Schubert’s Winterreise and Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion have enjoyed staged performances, Strauss’ seminal work has never been staged for a public audience. This interactive performance explores the human experience through an inclusive feminist lens, putting Strauss’ songs in conversation with our contemporary world. Director Jennifer Williams collaborates with vibrant soprano Cristina Bakhoum Sanchez to create a living character who wrestles with mortality, discovering love and acceptance.
Reimagining the Four Last Songs as multimedia immersive theater, Williams and her design collaborators transform The Alchemical into an immersive environment brought to life by video projections and interactive staging.
Performed by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.