other titles...
See also...
- litany of Divine Absence
- Litany of The First Encounter
- Litany of Blooming
- Litany of The Sleeping Dream
- Litany of The Yearning
- Litany of Fragmentation
- Litany of The Forsaken
- Litany of Gathering Up
- Litany of Transformation
- Litany of Godly Love
- Litany of The Unnamed
- Litany of Divine Presence
Nick Cave and Nicholas Lens
L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Nick’s a man of many talents, we’ve known that for a while now, but we didn’t know he’d be quite this good a librettist – this, his second project with lens, showcases how he is the undisputed master of *drama*.
At Lens’s request, Cave penned 12 litanies – “petitions to a divine maker” – simple, moving texts which the composer then wove into what he calls a “modest chamber opera of sleeping dreams”. Riding his bike around an unusually empty Brussels, Lens had been reminded of the magical stillness of the Rinzai Zen temples he had seen in rural Japan. Memories of these structures and of the inner peace he experienced while visiting them were the initial inspiration for the minimalistic, at times trance-like music of L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S., which features Denzil Delaere, N.L. Noorenbergh, Claron McFadden and Lens’s artist daughter Clara-Lane on vocals. Though the eleven instrumentalists recorded their parts individually in Lens’s home, to respect social distancing guidelines, there is a clear unity of purpose about the finished opera, a work of gentle beauty.