Metropolis. Torroella de Montgrí Music Festival

PERFORMERS

John Eckardt, electric bass
Hubert Steiner, electric guitar
Sylvain Cadars, sound and projection (IRCAM)
Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès
Martín Matalón, conductor

PROGRAMME

Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang. Soundtrack: Martín Matalón

Head and hands cannot understand each other but through the heart. This is the message that Fritz Lang sought to convey in his film Metropolis, filmed in 1927 and considered a cinematic masterpiece and a key work of German expressionist cinema. Set in 2026, it portrays a megalopolis inspired by New York, which Fritz had visited, in which society is divided between the rich, who hold the power and the means of production, and the workers condemned to live in an underground ghetto in dreadful conditions. In 1993, the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) of Paris commissioned the Franco-Argentine composer Martín Matalón to compose a new soundtrack for a restored version of Metropolis, which envelopes the film in an ocean of sound of acoustic and electronic music.