Recital (for Cathy)

In 2025, we celebrate the 100th birthday of the Italian avant-gardist Luciano Berio. To mark this occasion, Asko|Schönberg and Silbersee are presenting a new version of Berio’s Recital I (for Cathy), in which the soprano enters a hallucinatory state of mind. The music theatre performance blends live vocals with film projections and real-time video capture of both backstage and onstage. 

Berio wrote this Recital for his first wife, the American mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian. Soprano Eleonore Lemaire delivers an astounding rendition of this dramatic masterwork, featuring quotations from composers such as Monteverdi, Schubert and Donizetti. Included in this programme is also a new piece by Karmit Fadael, offering a contemporary and personal reflection on the work of Berio.