By Catherine Watson
MORE than a century after the First World War ended, the poetry it spawned still haunts us. A new work from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra violinist and curator Sarah Curro draws that poetry into a concert performance.
The Poetry of War will premiere in Wonthaggi’s Union Theatre on Saturday, August 2, ahead of its first Melbourne showing the following day. It brings together music and poetry in a 90-minute work of reflection and remembrance.
MORE than a century after the First World War ended, the poetry it spawned still haunts us. A new work from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra violinist and curator Sarah Curro draws that poetry into a concert performance.
The Poetry of War will premiere in Wonthaggi’s Union Theatre on Saturday, August 2, ahead of its first Melbourne showing the following day. It brings together music and poetry in a 90-minute work of reflection and remembrance.
Sarah Curro: “We need that moment to reflect.” Photo: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
This is Curro’s maiden voyage to Wonthaggi but she says it feels right to premiere the work here. “I know Wonthaggi has a strong sense of community and history. It feels right to begin here, before the city, in a town that understands what remembrance really means.”
She has wanted to do something like this since she was a teenager. A respected violinist with a wide-ranging repertoire, Curro’s early introduction to war poetry came through Britten’s War Requiem, with the words of Wilfred Owen woven into the music. “I just want as many people as possible to hear Wilfred Owen’s poetry,” she says. “It’s some of the greatest poetry about war ever written.”
She has wanted to do something like this since she was a teenager. A respected violinist with a wide-ranging repertoire, Curro’s early introduction to war poetry came through Britten’s War Requiem, with the words of Wilfred Owen woven into the music. “I just want as many people as possible to hear Wilfred Owen’s poetry,” she says. “It’s some of the greatest poetry about war ever written.”
