The Corridor

Concert by Asko|Schönberg with music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle in Holland Festival 2010.
Asko|Schönberg, together with soprano Elizabeth Atherton and tenor John Graham Hall present a programme full of intense longing and profound sadness, performing two recent works by English composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle in a mise-en- espace by Pierre Audi. Semper Dowland, semper dolens is a compilation of melancholic meditations on the trials of love for voice and ensemble, arranged on the music and songs by the English Renaissance composer John Dowland, in his time hailed as the English Orpheus. Dowland’s music is followed by The Corridor, a short chamber opera based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Birtwistle focuses entirely on the fatal moment when Orpheus looks back to Eurydice and they realize that they will be parted for ever.