Discography

“What’s incredible about this piece is that it is like Stravinsky – in this radical exciting way in which theatre, dance, music and visual art all combine – but they don’t become a soup called ‘opera’ – they are a salad, a cold dish where you still taste every ingredient. These ingredients are always in dialogue with each other, they don’t just become one thing – the famous melting pot – they remain interesting and keep their own identities. You receive the story from all these different angles – sometimes music expresses something better than anything in the world, other things you feel because of a colour, or a shape, it’s a gesture, or a look, or sometimes its listening to a story and seeing that story in your mind. For Purcell in 17th century London, all of these forms of story-telling were exciting.” PETER SELLARS

Renowned opera and theatre director Peter Sellars brought his unique reworking of Purcell’s The Indian Queen to the Teatro Real stage with Teodor Currentzis, MusicAeterna and several marvelous soloists. Adding to the original music, libretto and sung texts, Sellars’ also integrated secular and sacred works by Purcell, spoken texts by Rosario Aguilar (from her novel The Lost Chronicles of Terra Firma), striking sets from Chicano graffiti artist Giugio Nicandro (known as “Gronk”) and choreography by Christopher Williams.

The leading German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “Sellars has found a worthy soul-mate in Teodor Currentzis, one of the most fascinating conductors of the younger generation …. Currentzis … discovers long and sinuous melodies in the choruses, airs and songs, drawing them out with an intensity redolent of Eastern Orthodox spirituality.”