Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia is the first major symphonic work to address the traumas of the late 1970s in Cambodia, combining music, voice, movement, and film. Blending elements of the Western requiem with traditional Khmer music and cultural rites, it tells a universal and urgent story: that of a society confronting moral devastation and reclaiming its humanity through spiritual ritual.
Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia is a multi-disciplinary stage production combining music, film, movement and voice
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Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia is directed by internationally decorated film director Rithy Panh, Cambodia’s first Oscar nominee, in his first foray directing for the stage. Pahn’s stunning projections mix archival footage with surreal imagery to capture the very essence of his nation’s history. Composer Him Sophy, another artist at the forefront of Cambodia’s cultural renaissance, has created a score that celebrates the musical traditions of past while looking hopefully forward to a peaceful future. Mellifluous Buddhist smot chanting and other all-but-extinct Khmer musical forms are woven throughout a procession that moves from the heavens to the killing fields, culminating in a plea to recognize impermanence as the only path to peace. Both principle creatives are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide; in their first collaboration they bring us a deeply felt and vital work that encapsulates their nation’s experience of grief, anger, ritual, and, ultimately, rebirth.
2019
Chaktomuk, Phnom Penh (KH)
2018
Philharmonie de Paris, Paris (FR)
2017
Melbourne Festival, Melbourne (AU) | Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC (USA) | ArtsEmerson, Boston (USA)
“Bangsokol is a vital act of memory. It is an attempt to give dignity to the dead; to reconcile with our own past; to give a face and a name to the victims, to give their souls peace.”
Rithy Panh
TEAM
Director, Designer & Filmmaker: Rithy Panh
Composer: Him Sophy
Librettist: Trent Walker
Director of Staging: Gideon Obarzanek
Performer & Assistant to Director of Staging: Chumvan ‘Belle’ Sodhachivy
Music Director & Conductor: Andrew Cyr
Second Conductor: Johnny Ku
Costume Design: Romyda Keth
Lighting Design: Benjamin ‘Bosco’ Shaw
Commissioner: Cambodian Living Arts
Executive Producer: THE OFFICE Performing Arts + Film
Press
The Boston Globe: Cambodian arts take center stage in ‘Bangsokol’
The New Yorker: A Musical Tribute to the Victims of the Khmer Rouge
The New York Times: Genocide Survivors Compose a Requiem for Cambodia
The Sydney Morning Herald: Bangsokol review: Moving experience as Cambodia's pain laid bare
