''L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S'' is a 2020

chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a Chamber music, chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas ...

Nicholas Lens Nicholas Lens Noorenbergh (born 1957) is a Belgian composer of contemporary music, particularly known for his operas. His work is published by Schott Music and Mute Song and distributed by Universal Music Group and Sony BMG. In 2020 Nicholas Lens ...

set to an English-language

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...

. The work has been published by Mute Song, and BMG publishing. A studio recording has been produced and released by

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

Quotes by the writers

insight: "The sense of peace took me back to a number of profoundly moving visits I had made to

Yamanouchi, Kamakura is a neighborhood of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Because of the presence of East Japan Railway Company's (JR) Kita-Kamakura Station, it is better known as Kita-Kamakura. It lies within the Ofuna administrative subdivision of the city o ...

– a verdant hillside neighbourhood in the

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

Prefecture of Japan – site of the most ancient and highly treasured

Rinzai The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school of ...

Zen temples in the world. The initial idea for ''L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S'' was born in the natural silence that rises from the rainy and vivid green, moss forest that surrounds these 13th-century temples". With ''L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S'' it is the second time that the artist

writes the

for an opera by Nicholas Lens. Nick Cave: "Nicholas called me during lockdown and asked if I would write twelve litanies. I happily agreed. The first thing I did after I put down the phone was search 'What is a litany?' I learned that a litany was 'a series of religious petitions', and realised I had been writing litanies all my life." Cave further described the libretto as "twelve lyrical pieces that tracked the birth, blooming, fracturing and rebirth of a human being—petitions to a divine maker demanding some sort of cosmic acknowledgement and finding it beautifully rendered in the gorgeous music that Nicholas composed."

Recording by Deutsche Grammophon

A CD and double vinyl recording has been produced and distributed by

. Nicholas Lens and Nick Cave are credited as artistic producers (musical directors) of the recording. Four vocalists are credited as interpreters: Clara-Lane Lens, Denzil Delaere,

Claron McFadden Claron McFadden (born 1961) is an American soprano. McFadden studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, finishing her degree in 1984. She gained international fame when making her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in the ...

and Nicholas Lens Noorenbergh.

Vocals and instrumentation

Four singers perform with an ensemble consisting of one

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and one alto flute, one

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

and one bass clarinet, one alto and one tenor

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, one

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

, one

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

, one

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, two percussions, harp, piano and

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

Lockdown recording

Due to the severe lockdown period during early spring 2020 with all the known restrictions, and the fact that all professional music studios were closed, most of the album was exceptionally recorded at Lens' home in the Dansaert center of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. The album was finally mixed at Bleu Nuit Studios.

Synopsis

#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

References

{{Authority control Chamber operas Music dramas English-language operas Operas by Nicholas Lens 2020 operas Operas Nick Cave