La Commedia
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541997
Track Listing
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1-0120:16
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1-0219:25
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1-0323:49
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2-0116:45
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2-0223:30
News & Reviews
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Louis Andriessen’s The only one will be released on Nonesuch Records on March 5, 2021. This world premiere performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall in May 2019, conducted by LA Phil Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, with solo vocalist Nora Fischer. Two artistic discoveries influenced Andriessen as he wrote The only one: a collection of poems by the Flemish poet Delphine Lecompte from The animals in me, and the work of Nora Fischer, an Amsterdam–based singer known for developing dynamic creative projects that fuse classical and pop music.
Dutch conductor, pianist, and composer Reinbert de Leeuw died today, February 14, at the age of 81. De Leeuw was the conductor on all of the recordings Nonesuch Records has made of composer Louis Andriessen’s music; all but one of these were with Asko | Schönberg, the new-music ensemble of which he was a founder and the chief conductor. De Leeuw also led the ensemble in the Nonesuch recording of Steve Reich's Tehillim.
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About This Album
Nonesuch Records releases Louis Andriessen’s Grawemeyer Award–winning La Commedia on June 10, 2014, as a set with two CDs and a DVD. The film opera, a collaboration with director Hal Hartley, is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, with additional texts from the 16th-century German theologian Sebastian Brant, the 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, and the Old Testament’s “Song of Songs.” This Dutch National Opera production features the Asko and Schönberg Ensembles, led by Reinbert de Leeuw, with vocal soloists Claron McFadden (Beatrice), Cristina Zavalloni (Dante), Jeroen Willems (Lucifer/Cacciaguida), and Marcel Beekman (Casella), as well as Synergy Vocals, led by Micaela Haslam. The children’s choral parts are sung by Waterland’s Kinderkoor De Kickers, conducted by Jan Maarten Koeman. Orders of the album on MP3 and FLAC include the audio portion only.
In the composer’s words, “The simultaneous existence of heaven, purgatory, and hell; parallels between various scenes; and the use of film and stage effects all create the complexity that is necessary to do justice to Dante’s greatest creation. To this end, all events portrayed on the film screen and on stage, including dance, the spoken word, and song, should be regarded as a reaction to the music.”
La Commedia premiered in 2008 in Amsterdam before receiving concert performances at Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and, most recently, at Washington, DC’s National Gallery this spring as part of a week-long Andriessen 75th birthday festival. The opera has received critical praise along the way, with the New Yorker saying, “Even for a composer who admires both Bach and Chaka Khan, the stylistic frame of reference in La Commedia is staggeringly wide, ranging from Gregorian chant to what might be called Satanic Broadway … Hell and Heaven run together in a wild continuum,” and the New York Times saying, “He has set this deliberately motley text to a driven, often intensely dark score that, like so much of Mr. Andriessen's music, brings together starkly contrasting styles and makes the juxtapositions sound natural. Dissonant, sharp-edged woodwind and brass chords are accompanied by almost minimalist arpeggiation; jazz moves pop out of nowhere and evaporate just as quickly … the score’s most memorable aspect is the pounding, often lurching chord progressions that evoke different corners of the underworld.”
Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s music has explored politics, time, velocity, matter, and mortality in five works for large ensemble: De Staat (Nonesuch, 1991), De Tijd (Nonesuch, 1993), De Snelheid, De Materie (Nonesuch, 1996), and Trilogy of The Last Day. In addition to La Commedia, his stage works include the operas Writing to Vermeer (Nonesuch, 2006) and Rosa: The Death of a Composer (Nonesuch, 2000), as well as the monodrama Anaïs Nin. Nonesuch also released an album with his De Stijl and M is for Man, Music, Mozart in 1994.
Hal Hartley is an American independent filmmaker (writer, director, producer, and composer) active since 1989. His films include Trust (1990, winner best screenplay Sundance Film Festival), Henry Fool (1998, winner best screenplay Cannes Film Festival), and Meanwhile (2010). He has written and staged his play Soon at the Salzburger Festspiele in Austria (1998) and in America (2001). His association with Louis Andriessen began with the short film The New Math(s) in 1999. Hartley has just completed shooting his 13th feature film, Ned Rifle. He lives in New York.
Credits
MUSICIANS
Dutch National OperaAsko|Schönberg
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
Claron McFadden, soprano
Cristina Zavalloni, voice
Jeroen Willems, voice
Marcel Beekman, tenorSynergy Vocals
Micaela Haslam, directorChildren’s Chorus de Kickers of Music School Waterland
Jan Maarten Koeman, conductorPRODUCTION CREDITS
Music by Louis Andriessen
Electronic music by Anke Brouwer
Texts by Dante, Vondel, and others, and from the Old TestamentRecorded June 12, 2008 at Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam
Live Recording by NTR Radio
Producer for NTR: Bas Hagemeijer
Music Director: Lodewijk Collette
Recording, Mixing and Editing Engineer: Rob Heerschop
Recording Assistant: Arjan de Reus
Audio Post-producing: Anke Brouwer
Mastering: Frank van der Weij StudioAVC and Wireless Intercom Tech: Hans van Weegen
Sound: Wilfred Houthuysen
Sound Recordist for Film: Sander den BroederDesign by Barbara deWilde Design
World premiere: June 12, 2008, at Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam
A co-production of De Nederlandse Opera (Dutch National Opera) and the Holland Festival
Opera and Film Director: Hal Hartley
Film edited by Kyle GilmanPaul Clay, set design
Robby Duiveman, costume design
Scott Zielinski, light designPart I was commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Part II was commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Parts III–V were commissioned by De Nederlandse Opera and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Published by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.La Commedia is dedicated to Jeanette Yanikian (1935–2008)
Louis Andriessen dedicates this CD to the memory of Jeroen Willems (1962–2012)
More From
Louis Andriessen's Grawemeyer Award–winning film opera La Commedia, a collaboration with director Hal Hartley, is based on Dante's Divine Comedy, with additional texts including the Old Testament's "Song of Songs." This set of the Dutch National Opera production features the Asko | Schönberg Ensembles, led by Reinbert de Leeuw. The Washington Post calls La Commedia "an exciting, powerful and rich piece that shows Andriessen at the top of his game." The Los Angeles Times considers it "the greatest opera of the century so far."
Nonesuch Records releases Louis Andriessen’s Grawemeyer Award–winning La Commedia on June 10, 2014, as a set with two CDs and a DVD. The film opera, a collaboration with director Hal Hartley, is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, with additional texts from the 16th-century German theologian Sebastian Brant, the 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, and the Old Testament’s “Song of Songs.” This Dutch National Opera production features the Asko and Schönberg Ensembles, led by Reinbert de Leeuw, with vocal soloists Claron McFadden (Beatrice), Cristina Zavalloni (Dante), Jeroen Willems (Lucifer/Cacciaguida), and Marcel Beekman (Casella), as well as Synergy Vocals, led by Micaela Haslam. The children’s choral parts are sung by Waterland’s Kinderkoor De Kickers, conducted by Jan Maarten Koeman. Orders of the album on MP3 and FLAC include the audio portion only.
In the composer’s words, “The simultaneous existence of heaven, purgatory, and hell; parallels between various scenes; and the use of film and stage effects all create the complexity that is necessary to do justice to Dante’s greatest creation. To this end, all events portrayed on the film screen and on stage, including dance, the spoken word, and song, should be regarded as a reaction to the music.”
La Commedia premiered in 2008 in Amsterdam before receiving concert performances at Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and, most recently, at Washington, DC’s National Gallery this spring as part of a week-long Andriessen 75th birthday festival. The opera has received critical praise along the way, with the New Yorker saying, “Even for a composer who admires both Bach and Chaka Khan, the stylistic frame of reference in La Commedia is staggeringly wide, ranging from Gregorian chant to what might be called Satanic Broadway … Hell and Heaven run together in a wild continuum,” and the New York Times saying, “He has set this deliberately motley text to a driven, often intensely dark score that, like so much of Mr. Andriessen's music, brings together starkly contrasting styles and makes the juxtapositions sound natural. Dissonant, sharp-edged woodwind and brass chords are accompanied by almost minimalist arpeggiation; jazz moves pop out of nowhere and evaporate just as quickly … the score’s most memorable aspect is the pounding, often lurching chord progressions that evoke different corners of the underworld.”
Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s music has explored politics, time, velocity, matter, and mortality in five works for large ensemble: De Staat (Nonesuch, 1991), De Tijd (Nonesuch, 1993), De Snelheid, De Materie (Nonesuch, 1996), and Trilogy of The Last Day. In addition to La Commedia, his stage works include the operas Writing to Vermeer (Nonesuch, 2006) and Rosa: The Death of a Composer (Nonesuch, 2000), as well as the monodrama Anaïs Nin. Nonesuch also released an album with his De Stijl and M is for Man, Music, Mozart in 1994.
Hal Hartley is an American independent filmmaker (writer, director, producer, and composer) active since 1989. His films include Trust (1990, winner best screenplay Sundance Film Festival), Henry Fool (1998, winner best screenplay Cannes Film Festival), and Meanwhile (2010). He has written and staged his play Soon at the Salzburger Festspiele in Austria (1998) and in America (2001). His association with Louis Andriessen began with the short film The New Math(s) in 1999. Hartley has just completed shooting his 13th feature film, Ned Rifle. He lives in New York.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Music by Louis Andriessen
Electronic music by Anke Brouwer
Texts by Dante, Vondel, and others, and from the Old Testament
Recorded June 12, 2008 at Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam
Live Recording by NTR Radio
Producer for NTR: Bas Hagemeijer
Music Director: Lodewijk Collette
Recording, Mixing and Editing Engineer: Rob Heerschop
Recording Assistant: Arjan de Reus
Audio Post-producing: Anke Brouwer
Mastering: Frank van der Weij Studio
AVC and Wireless Intercom Tech: Hans van Weegen
Sound: Wilfred Houthuysen
Sound Recordist for Film: Sander den Broeder
Design by Barbara deWilde Design
World premiere: June 12, 2008, at Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam
A co-production of De Nederlandse Opera (Dutch National Opera) and the Holland Festival
Opera and Film Director: Hal Hartley
Film edited by Kyle Gilman
Paul Clay, set design
Robby Duiveman, costume design
Scott Zielinski, light design
Part I was commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Part II was commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Parts III–V were commissioned by De Nederlandse Opera and the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst
Published by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.
La Commedia is dedicated to Jeanette Yanikian (1935–2008)
Louis Andriessen dedicates this CD to the memory of Jeroen Willems (1962–2012)

541997
MUSICIANS
Dutch National Opera
Asko|Schönberg
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor
Claron McFadden, soprano
Cristina Zavalloni, voice
Jeroen Willems, voice
Marcel Beekman, tenor
Synergy Vocals
Micaela Haslam, director
Children’s Chorus de Kickers of Music School Waterland
Jan Maarten Koeman, conductor