[purgatorio] POPOPERA

After their kaleidoscopic HELL (2006), Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten continue their journey through Dante’s La Divina Commedia with a [purgatorio] diptych. In [purgatorio] POPOPERA, Bang on a Can composer Michael Gordon enriches the typical EG | PC research on the relationship between dance and music using structural elements from rock music. Six dancers intertwine with gleaming black electric guitars. A cross? A third arm? A lump of suffering? Dancers mutate into instruments. Raging guitars become fragile flesh and blood sound-boards. Chained by strings a crowd of dancers seeks purification in a redeeming rhapsody. [purgatorio] POPOPERA blends raw unpolished musicality with fine physical virtuosity and dissolves the borders of music and dance.

Musical Composition - Michael Gordon
Production – ICKamsterdam - Emio Greco | PC Coproduction - Holland Festival, Amsterdam (NL); Théâtre de la Ville, Paris (F); Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Amiens (F); Festival d’Avignon, Avignon (F); Teatro Duse, Bologna (I); Torino Danza, Torino (I); The Joyce Theater’s Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New York, Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Maryland (USA); Realized in collaboration with MAPP International Productions, New York (USA) and ATER, Modena (I)

“…[the dancers] seize the stage and then adorn themselves with guitars. And there they are, real guitar heroes! The soundtrack, formatted for saturated guitar riffs, accompanies our angel dancers from the purgatory, who play live, and a divine singer: Michaela Riener. Michael Gordon composed the score, borrowing in passing one of the most beautiful themes by Debussy that resists, o miracle, the vibrant chords plucked by the plectrum! The lights breathe with the bodies and emphasize the neoclassical variations, mixed with frenetic contortions, somewhere between hip-hop and Saturday Night Fever. A poetic pop opera, pure rock, pretty trendy, that perfectly enriches the dance… How could one not buy into it?!”
Vaucluse Matin, Sophie Bauret

“…Popopera appears as a refreshing bath, revitalizing because overflowing with energy and passion.”
La Marseillaise, Denis Bonneville

As a companion to the two purgatorio pieces, [purgatorio] IN VISIONE and [purgatorio] POPOPERA, Emio Greco | PC also released a ‘purgatorio’ magazine; 7: risorgimento for purgatorio. Click here for more info.