crowd out:
a 1000 voice opera

by composer David Lang

crowd out was first presented in Birmingham, UK at Millennium Point in 2014 under the direction of Simon Halsey, but it was until 2019, after several performances in London, Berlin, and Chicago, that the addition of a choreographic component was entrusted to Dimitri Chamblas for the presentation of the piece at Fluxus Festival, curated by Kate Nordstrum, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Previously, the performances of crowd out had taken place in large public spaces such as malls or open plazas. The performance in Los Angeles marked the first time the piece was performed inside a concert hall.

Chamblas mentions that the reason he was asked to direct the production was to see how a piece like crowd out could be staged in a theatrical context. How would the venue change the piece? Where would the singers be placed? On stage?

“I decided that the piece would change the theater rather than the theater changing the piece.” Chamblas aimed to create a similar experience that the audience had in large public spaces. “I didn’t want to have the singers on the stage creating a distance between them and the audience. I wanted to keep that human element and create that feeling of one single crowd.”

crowd out is brought to life by a huge crowd formed indiscriminately by performers and an audience. 1000 voices are spread out: on stage, in the orchestra or on the different levels or balconies. The singers mingle with the audience to perform a piece of words written by composer David Lang, directed by a conductor, and staged by Dimitri Chamblas.

“The history of the piece” Chamblas said in an interview, “is that David Lang was in Europe for one of his concerts and while walking in the street, he saw a large crowd of people going in the same direction.” Lang became very intrigued with this and decided to follow them. “It happened that those people were going into a stadium. He had the evening off and decided to buy a ticket to find out what it was.” Chamblas went on to explain that the crowd was headed to a soccer game. Soccer was not one of Lang’s interests, but Chamblas explained that while inside the stadium “instead of Lang watching the sport, he decided to listen to the match. He turned his ears on and to listened to it as if it were a masterful music piece or as if it was an opera. The supporters were whispering, shouting and yelling, building up tension until the climax of a goal. At that moment, everyone became a community.”

crowd out combines the human voice (spoken, sung, and shouted) with the dynamic movement of people, inviting the audience to enter the score. One of the biggest components of the project is bringing together 1,000 singers in each city where it is presented. It involves exploring the city, meeting different communities, and including as many people of all ages and cultural backgrounds to build the project.

And as Dimitri Chamblas explains it: “Being all together to perform, all together to cover this geographical space, at a moment in time, and sharing that work with an audience is just unbelievable.”