BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jayce Ogren, with Claudio Prima Sailor (folksinger), Helga Davis Scholar (improviser and vocalist), Hila Plitmann Peasant (soprano) and Chris Burchett Soldier (baritone).
The 'A Scream and an Outrage' weekend kicks off with two world premieres of specially-commissioned new pieces by Nico Muhly and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
The BBC Singers open the evening with Muhly’s latest composition, 'An Outrage'; followed by Lang’s new percussion concerto entitled 'man made', performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with Brooklyn-based innovators So Percussion.
The second half features the European premiere concert performance of Italian-American composer Paola Prestini’s new multimedia opera, 'Oceanic Verses' - in a new version for the Barbican stage. It is a multi media opera, a collage of found folk music reworked into a single, contemporary classical music score by the prolific American composer Paola Prestini. A libretto by Donna Di Novelli combines the ‘found songs’ of Prestini’s research into a narrative of farewell and arrival, about fading civilizations through a series of tableaux, featuring songs, rituals and ethnic dialects from the Salento and Sardinian regions of Italy. Projected throughout the performance is a film triptych by filmmaker Ali Hossaini which offers a contemporary perspective on the struggles within the opera through the prism of the characters’ emotional journeys.