The Askonas Holt Tours and Projects team is back on the road this week with Julia Bullock and the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), bringing Messiaen’s Harawi to Belgium and Germany.

Following the world premiere at the 2022 Aix-en-Provence Festival, Julia again joins forces with director Zack Winokur, pianist Conor Hanick, and choreographer-dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber to bring the staged production to De Singel in Antwerp, the stARTfestival in Leverkusen and Hamburg’s Elbphiharmonie.

The hour-long performance weaves together Messiaen’s song cycle - based on a Peruvian variant of the myth of Tristan and Iseult  - with movement and lighting to explore the themes of love and loss, and incorporates sounds from the Quechua language.

Of the premiere, Concerto.net observed, “The singer and pianist face challenges that seem impossible, and yet are achieved…Ms. Bullock dares to explore the extremes, musical and emotional…All the gestures are spellbinding…She remains a consummate actor who delivers great pleasure.”

Julia is a founding member of AMOC*, credited by the Los Angeles Times with “revitalizing what American music theater can mean with several of our most revolutionary young talents”. The tour follows her appearance in the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s Exiles – Remembrances with Manfred Honeck and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Watch a trailer for Harawi here.

Photo courtesy of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2022 © Vincent Beaume