Stabat Mater

The Grand Théâtre de Genève invites Italian director Romeo Castellucci for the first time, for an exceptional encounter with Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan. This is for a show outside the walls and outside the genre around the figure of Mary and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater . A canon of the religious repertoire since its premiere in 1736, two months before the composer's death from tuberculosis at the age of 26, the work is written for the traditional line-up of two solo voices (soprano and alto) and a reduced instrumental ensemble. It is still part of the usual Good Friday repertoire today, and has inspired numerous composers who have adapted, revised or borrowed it, from Bach to Hindemith. The name Stabat Mater corresponds to the incipit of a sequence composed in the 13th century and probably falsely attributed to the Italian Franciscan Jacopone da Todi. The text of the sequence evokes Mary's suffering at the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ, and is already used by Palestrina, de Lassus, Caldara or Scarlatti.