The Lying Down Concert: Earthrise, Royal Opera House

Lying down and looking up makes an entirely different music experience

by Ismene BrownSunday, 05 September 2010

The Earthrise photograph: Alec Roth's large-scale choral work is a dignified modern interpretation of medieval choralism

We should lie down to listen to music much more often. Gravity pulls away the thought and frown lines, smoothes the intellectual tracks and folds on the face, while you feel the blood in your head pumping lushly to dreamier parts of your brain. Joanna MacGregor’s If-A-Tree festival at the Royal Opera House this weekend may well be hitting some fey bases along its way, but Earthrise: The Lying Down Concert - was a spectacularly enjoyable opening event.

What resulted was an atmosphere in which many different kinds of musics could co-exist, like unrelated species of creatures

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