When I was first dreaming up the potential Oresteia that I planned to present at UCLA, I was listening to a lot of music by Kronos Quartet. I still remember the look on MZ's face - as we sat over dinner at the back of Leon - when I told her that this was the play I was considering! It made total sense, but it did perhaps lack any knowledge or concept of the place that it might be performed! (I am still going to direct the Aeschylean trilogy, but it won't be as my UCLA thesis. And that's a very good thing.)
My favourite piece by the Kronos Quartet is their version of Spem in Alium, a piece by Thomas Tallis. Realising that it was actually a choral work, I of course went off in search of a good version, and I think the best one I have found is by the Sixteen, an English choir who appear capable of singing just about anything.
My favourite album by them is called "Treasures of Tudor England" - not least for the fantastic portrait of Elizabeth I on the cover - which contains six long-form pieces that are heart-breakingly beautiful. That only sixteen voices can make that much sound is quite remarkable. But then I think of our sixteen Carmelites, and I marvel at their sonorous capacity also!
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