New Music Enhances Silent Masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc

On November 23rd, a one-night-only event brings together sight, sound, and storytelling as “Voices of Light”, composer Richard Einhorn’s oratorio, a meditation on the iconic life and tragic martyrdom of Joan of Arc, is merged with what is considered to be one of the best silent films in history, filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc”.

Performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale, with Stan Engebretson conducting, Einhorn wrote the score in only about 3 1/2 months, after seeing the film in the archives of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, “walking out of the screening room shattered”. The composer said he was left with a sense of utter amazement and wonder the first time he saw the film. Says Einhorn, “Imagine walking down an ordinary street in an ordinary city on an ordinary day. You turn the corner and suddenly without warning, you find yourself staring at the Taj Mahal.” He had been interested in composing a piece inspired by the historic figure, and The Passion of Joan of Arc, which even at the time of release was hailed as one of the greatest films of all time, became the perfect vehicle.

The film has a storied history and an impressive following, having influenced filmmakers like Berman, Fellini, Hitchcock and Scorsese. Tragically, only a few months after the film and its star Renee Falconetti were celebrated as extraordinary, the film’s negative and virtually all prints were destroyed in a warehouse fire. Though director Dreyer painstakingly reconstructed the film from outtake footage that had survived, that second version was destroyed in a second fire. Though various prints were circulated in the decades since with a score based on a montage of Baroque composers, those versions were disowned by Dreyer. Then in 1981, a near-perfect copy of the film was found at a mental institution in Oslo, Norway, stuffed in the back of a closet. It was indeed a print of the original version of the great film.

Einhorn’s Voices of Light is meant as a stand-alone work that is, beyond having been inspired by this classic silent masterpiece, meant to speak to more of Joan’s life and legend. In developing the piece, the composer wanted to include singing, not least as a mirror of the voices calling to the young woman known as the Maid of Orleans. He did research on literature written by female mystics of the Middle Ages, and created a libretto that included excerpts from these writings, that would be sung exclusively in ancient languages of Latin, Old and Middle French, and Italian. The text also incorporates accusations from Joan of Arc’s actual accusers.

Included in this performance:

Suzanne Karpov, soprano

Katherine Pracht, mezzo-soprano

Matt Smith, tenor

Kerry Wilkerson, baritone

National Philharmonic Chorale

Stan Engebretson, conductor

This performance will take place at the Strathmore Music Center at 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda at 8pm, and will have a special pre-concert Q&A with composer Richard Einhorn and WTOP Entertainment Editor Jason Fraley at 6:45 pm.

For tickets, go to https://www.nationalphilharmonic.org/ Get 20% off using VOICES20