Join performers from the Royal Northern College of Music for the unforgettable experience of Harawi, Messiaen’s last song cycle.

Its enchanting harmonies re-imagine the myth of two fated lovers, Tristan and Iseult. The texts of the cycle are highly surrealist, generally composed of isolated symbols. Messiaen himself wrote the libretto following Wagner’s music dramas and Debussy who set his own symbolist poetry in his four Proses lyriques. The work borrows melodies from numerous traditional folksongs of the Andes as compiled in a book by Raoul d’Harcourt and his wife Marguerite Béclard.

In addition to the French text, Harawi also uses Quechua words, some faux, some real, not for their semantic meaning, but for their sound, that is, their timbral and syllabic qualities. He would later reuse this practice in the Rechants and Saint François d’Assise. Rarely performed in full, this is a concert not to miss.

Performers
Isobel Archer piano
Gabriela Comeau Gort soprano
Ellena Hicks soprano
Katrina Mackenzie soprano
Tessa Tang soprano

Doors: 6.50pm
Concert: 7pm