Heaven & Hell

At the time of the French Revolution, the English poet and painter William Blake imagined, in his visionary collection of poems The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, perhaps the most contradictory union conceivable: that of Paradise and Hell. In a spirit at once iconoclastic and liberating, he celebrated paradox itself.

Commissioned by the Opéra-Comique, the new score by Pascal Dusapin — one of the great musical innovators of our age, brings together two spiritual worlds: Blake's prophetic fervour and the liturgical solemnity of the Requiem Mass. Invocations of eternal peace and salvation are set in dialogue with exaltations of energy, doubt and imagination, within a vast choral structure conceived for three choirs, a soloist and an instrumental ensemble. In both Latin and English, the work explores the tension between rival visions of the afterlife, divine justice and human destiny.

This monumental modern choral work, or "opératorio", to use Pascal Dusapin's own term — invites its audience to listen, to reflect, and perhaps even to find concord. It will receive its premiere with more than 200 performers, staged by Netia Jones as part of the third edition of the Grand Palais d'Été festival.