Forgotten Land

Jiří Kylián, in comparison to Benjamin Britten, sees Sinfonia da Requiem as a work of more personal character than a political one—for it is always people who determine the political scene. It is always people and nature who turn the wheel of evolution a little further.

East Anglia, a coastline of England slowly submerging under the sea, is the birthplace of Benjamin Britten.

The image of land taken over by the sea—together with a painting by Edvard Munch—became the primary inspiration for the choreography of Forgotten Land: land—the basis and center of human existence—is in itself always subject to the eternal metamorphosis and mutation; land, from ancient times bearing the imprints of generations; lands within the memories of human beings, that had to be forgotten because of political struggle; lands destroyed by nature or human negligence; wishful lands that have only emerged in our dreams; lands of promise and illusion.

Notes courtesy of the Kylián Foundation. Used by permission.