Paco Pena

Paco Pena's Requiem for the Earth, commissioned for the 2004 Salisbury Festival, is a powerful musical expression of the idea that our existence on this earth is ephemeral. In due time we all pass away, and most of us live in the expectation that a new generation will take over, and that life, as we know it, will continue as if for ever.

But Paco's flamenco requiem takes us beyond the traditional Catholic liturgy, with its Lux Aeterna, its Dies Irae, Libera Me and Agnus Dei, for whereas the Requiem Mass expresses the hope that contrite souls will find their place in heaven on the Day of Judgement, and hence a faith in life everlasting, Paco's requiem is a requiem for life on this planet.