Fire in my Mouth with Marin Alsop

Programme

Fire in my Mouth is a powerful semi-staged elegy honouring the victims of New York’s 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

The Philharmonia’s trailblazing Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop opens the Southbank’s classical music season with this ‘monumental achievement in high musical drama’ (The Nation).

Set against the rise of the workers’ movement, the piece commemorates the deadliest industrial disaster in New York’s history, delivering a powerful message on labour, immigrant and women’s rights that resonates with striking urgency today.

This multimedia production includes cutting-edge scenic lighting and video design. A vividly choreographed work, it represents the 146 garment workers who lost their lives, most of whom were young women, through a towering chorus of exactly 146 singers dressed in historically-inspired garments.

Their voices intertwine with sweeping orchestral forces, Yiddish and Italian folk songs, the mechanical roar of the factory, and the visceral terror of the inferno to create an epic, haunting soundscape that demands to be heard.