12 Nov Press Release: A Moment’s Oblivion
LES DÉLICES AND TENOR NICHOLAS PHAN PERFORM BAROQUE GEMS AND A WORLD PREMIERE IN A MOMENT’S OBLIVION, FEB. 22 & 23, 2025
Les Délices continues its 2024-25 Concert Series Visions & Dreams in February 2025 with A Moment’s Oblivion. This powerful new program with star tenor Nicholas Phan explores memory, illness, and community through introspective French Baroque music and a poignant World Premiere by composer Viet Cuong.
Les Délices will give two matinee performances of A Moment’s Oblivion: February 22nd at Heights Theater in Cleveland Heights and February 23rd at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River. Chamber Music Pittsburgh will host a touring performance of A Moment’s Oblivion on Monday, February 24th. A filmed version of this concert will be available to watch on-demand via Les Délices’ Vimeo platform March 28 through April 13, 2025. Single tickets for in-person performances hosted by Les Délices are on sale via the LD website. Patrons can purchase streaming access through Vimeo.
At the heart of the program, A Moment’s Oblivion is a new cantata created by Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong and librettist Dave Lucas. The story comes from a traditional Chinese myth called The Loss of Memory Myth. In it, a middle-aged man loses his memory and is later miraculously cured, but resents his family for “healing” him, so that he now has to remember “the ten thousand vexations of my decades of life.” He wonders “where shall I find another moment’s oblivion?”
Framing this World Premiere are French Baroque cantatas by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair that posit forgetting as a balm, Marin Marais’ famous Labyrinth for viola da gamba, and François Couperin’s haunting solo harpsichord Mysterious Barricades. A Moment’s Oblivion promises to be a thought-provoking and beautiful concert experience that offers the opportunity to contemplate universal themes of community, love, and healing.
Featured artists for A Moment’s Oblivion include tenor Nicholas Phan, Artistic Director and oboist Debra Nagy, violinist Shelby Yamin, viola da gamba specialist Rebecca Landell, and harpsichordist Mark Edwards.
Marking the LD Debut of a World-Class Tenor
Tenor Nicholas Phan has carved out a uniquely wide-ranging career, renowned for his interpretation of canonical Baroque works by Bach and Handel and for his collaborations with living composers. His extensive discography includes three discs nominated for the GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” Phan is praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship. The acclaimed tenor previously performed with Les Délices for a concert of Bach arias at the 2024 Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, but A Moment’s Oblivion marks Phan’s debut on LD’s Concert Series.
“I’m so excited to work with Nick on this project,” commented LD Artistic Director Debra Nagy. “Nick selected the Memory Myth, which resonated with his own experiences with immediate family members. Our initial planning conversations were so inspiring and thoughtful – and Nick is a consummate artist. I’m so looking forward to working with him to bring A Moment’s Oblivion to life.”
Commissioning New Works: The Mythology Project
Viet Cuong’s new work, A Moment’s Oblivion, is the first in a planned series of commissions by Les Délices dubbed The Mythology Project. This multi-year programming and commissioning project will result in the composition, performance, and recording of three new Cantatas by under-represented composers. Additional World Premieres will take place in LD’s 2025-26 and 2026-27 Concert Seasons.
17th & 18th century secular cantatas – with plots and settings drawn from Greco-Roman mythology – are central to Les Délices’ repertoire. Exploring ideas around vengeance, fidelity, fate, death, and more, these brief dramatic works (usually 15-20 minutes) are like mini-operas in which one singer and a small chamber ensemble can embody many different characters.
Nagy sees real opportunities in expanding the canon by commissioning new works: “The cantata’s unique combination of music & myth has real power to excite our imaginations, build empathy, and relay universal wisdom. I’m especially interested in how The Mythology Project will also allow us to tell stories from beyond the western Classical tradition. In this way, we have the opportunity to expand notions of what early music is and who it is for. The Confucian myth that Nick chose is a great example.”
Participating composers in The Mythology Project will respond to 18th century traditions while forging their own paths through the genre. Nagy offered, “Viet Cuong has a strong interest in Baroque styles and genres and his music is incredibly fun and satisfying to play. I’m very eager to hear the first notes of A Moment’s Oblivion.”
The opportunity to think broadly about myth and its impact on our lives extends to cantatas’ words. For this, Nagy tapped acclaimed Cleveland-Heights based poet Dave Lucas to shape lyrics from the prose myth. “When Nick, Viet, Dave, and I all finally met together to talk about the project, we were incredibly inspired by the many potential meanings and lessons in the Memory Myth. Dave went away from that initial conversation and crafted a beautiful text about remembering, forgetting, family, and fate. He has an extraordinary way of uplifting language to reveal its universal messages. His own poetry frequently explores mythological themes so he was a perfect collaborator.”
EVENT DETAILS:
A Moment’s Oblivion
Exploring truth, memory, & healing through Baroque music plus a world premiere with tenor Nicholas Phan
Live performances
Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 4:00 pm
Heights Theater
2781 Euclid Heights Blvd Cleveland Heights
Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 4:00 pm
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
20401 Hilliard Boulevard, Rocky River
***On tour in Pittsburgh***
Monday, February 24, 2025 at 7:30 pm
PNC Theater
350 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
Streaming Online on Vimeo
March 28 – April 13, 2025