FULL Wormwood or Chornobyl Cantata (Christos Hatzis) Kaunas 2023 Andrius Apšega, Mantas Jankavičius, Kyryl Dernovy

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Wormwood or Chornobyl Cantata   
• Composer: Hatzis Christos   
• Libretto: Christos Hatzis, drawing primarily from the Book of Revelation to parallel the 1986 nuclear disaster with biblical prophecy    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Kaunas State Philharmonic on ,  
• Recorded: October 15, 2023
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Andrius Apšega, Mantas Jankavičius, Kyryl Dernovy
• Conductor: Robertas Šervenikas  
• Orchestra: Kaunas Piano Trio  
• Chorus: Kaunas State Choir  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: LRT  
• Date Published: 2024  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  The threat of nuclear energy is a recurring issue in these troubled times. We hear the names of Astravas, Visaginas, Zaporizhia and other nuclear power plants being bandied about in the world and Lithuanian media. Many of us remember the Chernobyl disaster thirty-six years ago and its dramatic consequences. On the twentieth anniversary of the accident, Christos Hatzis, a Greek composer living in Canada, composed the magnificent cantata Wormwood (Chornobyl), which is dedicated to memory and warning. To remember the victims of the disaster and to warn against the threat of nuclear power that is not going away.

  The idea for the cantata came to the composer after learning that the Ukrainian word “Chornobyl” means “wormwood” (Artemisia absinthium) and comparing this meaning with the apocalyptic book “Revelation to John” (the last book of the New Testament), which mentions wormwood as the means by which a large part of humanity will be exterminated. Influenced by this link, Hatzis has composed a spectacular cantata, whose music ranges from gospel to contemporary sounds, while the text presents the apocalyptic prophecies of the Revelation of John and interprets them freely, through the prism of the composer’s vision.

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