''Flamma Flamma – The Fire Requiem'' is a music drama by Nicholas Lens. It is the first part of the operatic trilogy The Accacha Chronicles. The work was artistically and financially produced by the composer himself and gained international fame when Sony Classical bought the rights in 1994 for worldwide distribution.

''Time'' magazine quote

According to ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine, Flamma Flamma is among those compositions of contemporary classic music "breaking down the established divisions between popular and so-called serious music" as " th its visceral strength and sustained emotional drive, Flamma Flamma has won a loyal audience and critical favor."MEMENTO MORI
. Time Inc, 1995. Retrieved on 23 February 2007.

Live performances and adaptations

*The American actor Frank Sheppard (picture) performed the part of the Gédé at the first creation of ''Flamma Flamma'' in a spooky

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

in Mechelen,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in 1993. *In 1998 ''Flamma Flamma'' was created with 2,000 participants for an audience of 30,000 people in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, Australia at the opening night of the Adelaide Festival of Arts at

Elder Park Elder Park is a public open space in the city of Adelaide, South Australia on the southern bank of the River Torrens and that is bordered by the Adelaide Festival Centre and North Terrace. The park is named after the Elder family who wer ...

(Festival intendant: Robin Archer). *''fLamma fLamma'' (1995) is the title of a short film based on the titletrack of ''Flamma Flamma'' by N. Lens, directed by Jan Bultheel, produced by Pix & Motion. The film was shown on MTV and Arte. It was the first time Sony Classical had a music track of one of his artists playing on the popular MTV-channel. Today, the video for "Flamma Flamma" still gets sporadic airplay on MTV European's late night eclectic show "Chill Out Zone". The score has been used a numerous times for art-firework-performances and hundreds of dance and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

creations all over the world. Lens, who considers himself (in interviews) more a fan of severe contemporary dance and moving theatre (Lens is Belgian born and has been influenced by the contemporary

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

dance scene), was not always happy with these adaptations. More than ten years after the original creation Nicholas Lens rewrote the score completely. This new,

operatic Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libret ...

and more extended and purely acoustic version, which seems far more complex in rhythm and tonality (read: a-tonality), -published in 2005 by Schott Music International (

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

/New York) as first part of ' The Accacha Chronicles'- did not premiere yet. In 1995

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

Classical USA released an American cover version of the work. Sony Classical USA considered that the European cover, based on the

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by t ...

of Chartres (France), (originally a huge painting by the Japanese/Belgian artist Peter Bal) was too ''intellectual'' and ''arty'' for the American market. The American cover with the doubled androgynous angel face was designed by the New York artist Amy Guip. The change of cover was criticised in the American press.

Track listing

# Hic Iacet I (5:41) # Hic Iacet II (9:07) # Sumus Vicinae (4:57) # Tegite Specula (6:06) # Complorate Filiae (4:13) # Vale Frater (4:12) # Amice Mi (4:39) # Corpus Inimici (5:25) # Deliciae Meae (4:54) # Flamma Flamma (3:17) # Ave Ignis (4:42) # In Corpore (4:58) # Agnus Purus (5:55) # Ardeat Ignis (7:18)

Credits

* First part of the operatic

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

by Nicholas Lens The Accacha Chronicles * Music & Concept: Nicholas Lens * Libretto:

Herman Portocarero Herman J.P. Portocarero (born 6 January 1952, in Antwerp) is a Belgian writer and diplomat of Portuguese and Spanish ancestry. Diplomat After graduating law school at Antwerp University, Portocarero practiced law at the Antwerp bar. He joined t ...

* Published by Schott Music International

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

* Released by Sony BMG International 74321 697172 * Original release by

Classical SK 66293

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Nicholas Lens' Website
* ''Time'' magazin

* Schott Music Internationa

* Internet Movie Data Bas

* WBF

* Sony BMG https://web.archive.org/web/20060228202731/http://www.sonybmg.de/artists2.php?artist=187779 * Fan Page

Music dramas Compositions by Nicholas Lens Postmodern music Contemporary classical compositions 2005 operas