We join innovative violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, one of Southbank Centre’s Resident Artists for Spring/Summer 2024, as she evokes humanity’s final day on earth, a “day of wrath”, in a staged reflection of our collective awakening to climate change.
PatKop says: “Dies Irae is a reflection on our time, the climate disaster, our last day. Humanity is not infinite – but maybe our sounds and thoughts remain somewhere in the memory of the universe”. Through music old and new, she leads a musician’s reaction to a deeply threatened world, culminating in Galina Ustwolskaja’s merciless Dies irae and the Gregorian chant that inspired it, a striking signal marking the end of humanity.
First presented at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, The Times labelled Dies Irae a “powerful reaction to climate change”. Under a veil of video projections, lighting and theatrical staging, PatKop asks you to leave your comfort zone and join her in the fight for our world’s future.