Baryshnikov Arts Center Presents The U.s. Premiere Of SOS (THE SONG OF SONGS)

By: Feb. 24, 2020
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Baryshnikov Arts Center introduces New York audiences to one of the most innovative hybrid performance works to emerge from Russia in recent years-and a collaboration between two bold Russian female artists-when it presents the U.S. premiere of SOS (The Song of Songs), on March 25 & 26. Conceived by Russian visual and performance artist Vera Martynov with Ekaterina Antonenko, artistic director of Moscow's acclaimed Intrada Vocal Ensemble, this staged cantata featuring 14 singers from Intrada, two narrators, and a musician playing percussion and a telegraph key investigates experiences of personal and global tragedy. SOS takes its name from the standard Morse code signal of distress and from the poetic Old Testament text, Solomon's Song of Songs.

The seed of SOS lies in Vera Martynov seeing a Bach performance by Intrada and being bowled over by the presence of Antonenko, "this small, fragile figure in front of a huge choir." The two women agreed to collaborate and began looking for music to fit the theme of the work Martynov had in mind. It occurred to Martynov that contemporary music was called for-to reflect catastrophe as a current-day, as well as timeless, phenomenon. They selected Alexey Sysoev, a Russian composer/musician who has participated in various jazz, electronic, and experimental projects and in 2013 had won the Golden Mask National Theatre Award for the best work by a musical theatre composer.

Martynov's libretto draws from three primary sources: a 17th-century translation into English of Solomon's Song of Songs; the letters of Ancient Roman magistrate, writer, and lawyer Pliny the Younger (63-113 CE); and Martynov's diaries. Also interwoven are expressions of distress in modern society, including eyewitness accounts of catastrophes by individuals including journalists for major news sources and an 18-year-old boy (Pliny the Younger's age when he witnessed the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, the destruction of Pompeii, and the death of his uncle-prolific ancient Roman scholar, and writer, Pliny the Elder).

SOS is conceived and features a libretto by Vera Martynov, who also directs, working alongside Intrada artistic director Ekaterina Antonenko, who serves as music director. The work is composed by Alexey Sysoev and choreographed by Nikita Chumakov. The performers are actors Polina Grishina and Alexander Pronkin; musician Dmitry Shchelkin, who plays percussion and the telegraph key; and Intrada singers Evgenia Kissina, Daria Safroshkina, Lyubov Temnova, Maria Grigorieva, Tatiana Kokoreva, Ekaterina Kolomina, Olga Talysheva, Varvara Popova, Maria Movenko, Ivan Derevnin, Artem Volkov, Mikhail Nor, Vladimir Krasov, and Nikolai Basov.

Performances of SOS (The Song of Songs) take place Wednesday, March 25, and Thursday, March 26, at 7:30pm in BAC's Jerome Robbins Theater (450 West 37th Street). Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at bacnyc.org or 866.811.4111. SOS is performed in English and runs approximately 60 minutes.



Videos