About this Event
DREAM: A Climate Passion Play is a ground-breaking choral performance project, conceived as a “Passion” in the quasi-religious dramatic format inherited from J.S. Bach.
Presented in four acts, the concert unfolds as a dream vision during which we pass from environmental balance, through climate disaster, to contemplative reflection, and finally to the possibility of rebirth for the earth.
Conceived by our Artistic Director Kathryn Whitney especially for Ensemble Laude, the concert uses composed music, improvisations, and choir/audience singing to help our community process the emotional impact of the climate crisis and to create the feeling of collective agency.
Dream Vision
The transformation at the heart of the concert is articulated through the metaphor of sleeping and wakening:
We enter sleep with “Moonset” by Don MacDonald and “Anang! (A Star) by Andrew Balfour. At the end of the concert, we awaken with “Sunrise Song” by Brian Tate. In between, each act features one environment-themed work from British Columbia:
- Narvaez Bay by Stephen Morris & Mark Timmings, arr. K Whitney
- Unsung – If the Earth Could Sing by Katerina Gimon
- Sanctum (Vancouver Island Requiem) by Sarah Quartel
- Earth Beloved by Nicholas Ryan Kelly (World premiere of the chamber version, co-commissioned by Ensemble Laude and Elektra, 2026)
The Hurrian Hymn - Song of Promise & Change
Like in Bach’s Passions, which features hymn singing with the congregation/audience between solos and chorus, DREAM features group singing with the audience between acts. This transforms audience members into community participants in the drama, instilling a sense of agency.
The DREAM hymns are variations, arranged by Kathryn Whitney, of the “Hurrian Hymn”, the oldest known song (c. 1300 BCE). Initally, the original Hurrian text is sung with its original text: it is a prayer through which humans offer libations to the moon goddess, Nikkal, in exchange for her gift of fertility and continued life.
As the dream vision proceeds, the text is gradually inverted, however. By sunrise, the Hurrian Hymn is revealed as a prayer from Nikkal back to earth dwellers. She sings of her offering of loyalty and light in exchange for the gift of human action to uphold the promise of continued life on earth.
SIMRES & Ensemble Laude - An Environmental Partnership
This concert is produced in association with SIMRES - Saturna Island Marine Research & Education Society.
https://simres.ca/
Event venue & nearby stays
United Commons (formerly First Metropolitan), 932 Balmoral Road, Victoria, Canada
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