World Premiere of Tan Dun's 'Buddha Passion' at Dresden Music Festival
18th May 2018
Tan Dun at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, © Tan Dun
Commissioned jointly by the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the monumental piece — sung in Chinese and Sanskrit — is scored for seven soloists, choir, and orchestra; it will be performed in Dresden by the Münchner Philharmoniker, featuring the Internationale Chorakademie Lübeck.
Tan Dun's Buddha Passion weaves stories that have lived in the hearts and minds of the Eastern World for thousands of years. Buddha Passion will be the very first 'passion' story written about the lessons of Buddha with music inspired by the ancient city of Dunhuang and the awe-inspiring Mogao Caves, which have been under protection for the past thirty years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: 'Located in an oasis of the Taklamakan Desert in western China, the ancient city of Dunhuang became an important outpost of the Silk Road nearly two thousand years ago. For centuries, it flourished as a center for Buddhist worship and learning. Generations of monks and pilgrims carved shrines out of the rock cliffs at Mogao, gradually building one of the greatest collections of Buddhist painting, sculpture, and architecture in the world'. (Dunhuang Foundation).
Inspired by the powerful spiritual and cultural exchange, as well as the groundbreaking musical history discovered in the Dunhuang murals from the 4th-14th centuries, Tan Dun spent two years locating, visiting, researching, and documenting the lost musical manuscripts from the Dunhuang Library Cave. His fascination and countless hours of research to translate and unearth 'the ancient sounds of Dunhuang' culminate in this ambitious new work, weaving chants, stories, and sounds of Dunhuang into an opera of six individual short stories.
Capturing the ancient narratives of the Buddha's teachings and the timeless, universal concepts of love, forgiveness, sacrifice, and salvation, Tan Dun has summarized the stories portrayed on the walls of the Mogao Caves in an extraordinary and unique musical work.
World Premiere:
Buddha Passion (Opera in Six Acts)
Dresden Music Festival
23 May 2018
Munich Philharmonic
International Choir Academy Lübeck
Tan Dun | Conductor
Sen Guo | Soprano
Kang Wang | Tenor
Shenyang | Baritone
Huiling Zhu | Mezzo-soprano
Tan Weiwei | Female Indigenous Singer
Batubagen | Male Indigenous Singer
Wenqing Shi | Fantan Pipa Soloist and Dancer
The premiere of the Buddha Passion in Dresden has deep additional significance and meaning for Tan Dun. Thirty-five years ago, Tan Dun's international career as a composer began in Dresden: he was awarded the Carl Maria von Weber Prize for his string quartet Feng-Ya-Song and became the first Chinese composer ever allowed to travel abroad to receive a prize. To return to Dresden with this towering work signifies an important milestone in the life and career of Tan Dun: 'Now, finally, I come full circle and return to Dresden, 35 years later…I am so very grateful to the Dresden community for continuing to give me the opportunity to share my music with them'.
ABOUT TAN DUN:
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world's music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today's most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and, most recently, Italy's Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun's music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television.
Tan Dun's music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc and represented worldwide by the Music Sales Group of Classical Companies.
