Another Look

I fell under the spell of this work written in 1975, a year before the premiere of the opera Einstein on the Beach. It was during this period that Philip Glass began to experiment with this repetitive style which made him one of the most unique composers of his time. I had the feeling, while listening to it, that this work modified our perception of time, abolishing the sensation of duration and plunging us into a state of hypnosis. It is also one of the rare large-scale non-religious pieces written for choir and organ. This singularity immediately aroused my interest and fueled my desire to approach this work with Les Métaboles, first of all through a new recording—of which there are few—which will be released in early 2025, then as part of a stage production created for the 2025-2026 season. Recently, I had the chance to direct several operas by Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten, and I could not envisage this choral piece without a stage contribution. Another Look is a radical work which is anchored in references to the music of the past (Gregorian chant and the School of Notre-Dame in particular). This piece was composed at a time when the porosity between the arts was very great, as such, bringing it a plastic dimension is a way of paying homage to this dialogue. This is the reason why I asked the pair Céline Diez and Clément Debailleul, from the company 14:20, so that they develop a plastic and audio-visual proposal constituting a whole with the music and thus participating in questioning the usual format of a concert.

Léo Warynski

ANOTHER LOOK


Philip Glass,
Another Look at Harmony Part IV

Andrea Basily,
Canon ad unisonum


Les Métaboles
Yoan Héreau, organ
Léo Warynski, direction

Céline Diez & Clément Debailleul,
visual artists
Elsa Revol, light creation
Antoine Seigneur, technical director


Production Metaboles 
Co-production Cité de la Voix – National Center for Vocal Art and Cité musicale- Metz 
Another Look is supported by Adami and Private Copy

2025

May

Thursday, May 15 2025 - 07:00 pmAnother Look - Philip GlassLa Filature, scène nationale de Mulhouse

Another Look at Harmony by Philip Glass, performed by the ensemble Les Métaboles under the direction of Léo Warynski, combines with the visual creation of Céline Diez and Clément Debailleul, offering a concert show where music and image interact in an unprecedented way and offers a immersive and sensory experience.

The title, Another Look at harmony, invites us to rethink harmony by combining auditory and visual perceptions. This project is a free poetic reverie around the infinitely large and the infinitely small, exploring the cyclical dimensions of time so dear to Glass's work. Far from being limited to a simple illustration, the visual creation develops a dialogue with the music, broadening the listener's horizon through a sensitive and renewed perception.

 “It is not enough to hear the music, you must also see it,” wrote Stravinsky… The music becomes a painting, the image a melody, thus creating a form of total art where the senses intermingle, offering the viewer a journey through sound and visual landscapes.