Published
Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 10:00
- The Los Angeles artist will work with Leeds' Opera North company on the score, which will premiere summer 2020.
Julia Holter has received a commission from Leeds' Opera North company to score The Passion Of Joan Of Arc.
Holter's original score builds off of a live soundtrack she performed in LA in summer of 2019. The expanded version will see the experimental pop musician joined by 36 members of Opera North's chorus as well as her three-piece band.
"I'll be adapting a couple of relevant medieval chants for the ensemble," Holter says on her plans for the Opera North commission, "to take the melodies to a wild place that reflects the rapture and trauma of Falconetti's Joan, with the help of bells, organ and other instruments."
Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 silent film is widely regarded as a classic. The American film critic Pauline Kael said Renée Jeanne Falconetti's performance in The Passion Of Joan Of Arc "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film."
The live score will premiere at Leeds Town Hall on June 24th, 2020 with a London performance Barbican planned for June 27th. Opera North has previously commissioned Philip Jeck and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson to score the 1929 silent film Pandora's Box.
Read our RA-recommended review of Holter's last album, Aviary.
Photo credit: Tammy Nguyen
