ANDREI / Dimitra Trypani – A Requiem in Eight Scenes

Andrei: A Requiem in Eight Scenes, a work by Dimitra Trypani, is a singular, contemporary funeral liturgy for the great filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The libretto, written by Pantelis Boukalas, enters into dialogue with the German text of the Lutheran Requiem Mass, and with fragments of dialogue drawn from the seven feature films made by the Russian artist.

The work is classified as a “sound performance” as, according to the composer Dimitra Trypani, it is sound –namely, text and music strictly interconnected through the score– that serves as the overarching narrative mode. Within Trypani’s composition, major roles are played by chromatic heterophonic and polyphonic structures, polystylistic approaches, and body percussion. Additionally, the incorporated polyglottal elements and film dialogue snippets are inserted into the overall liturgical text by means of collage techniques.

Commissioned by the Greek National Opera, the work is articulated in eight parts: an introductory scene followed by another seven that correspond to the seven sections of the German Requiem Mass text and, moreover, to the seven feature films Tarkovsky made during the course of his short life.

Nineteen acclaimed actors, dancers, and musicians will perform an equal number of on-stage Andrei variants, real-life persons, or key imaginary characters drawn from his seven films. As the artist herself notes: “The entire work is a Tarkovskian dream, since the real and unreal are interwoven through the music of the requiem that inundates the space.”

The composer Dimitra Trypani is engaged in the creation of interdisciplinary music performances, using strictly structured polyrhythmic forms and heterophonic patterns as her main media in her approach to both music and speech. She has worked with numerous renowned orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, both in Greece and beyond. She is an associate professor in Music Theory and Composition with Interdisciplinary Practices at the Ionian University’s Department of Music.
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