Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion

‘Please enlighten us: what are you?’ ‘I am … awake.’ Beneath the Himalayas, a little Prince awakens to compassion, and attains enlightenment. In Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, the legends of Buddhism meet the tradition of Bach’s great choral Passions, drawing on ancient Chinese and Sanskrit texts to retell a story of universal significance: a tale of wonder, of truth and of gentle but irresistible transformation. Tan Dun himself conducts this UK premiere of a work without precedent in the Western concert hall, alive with all the fantasy and uncompromising emotional power we’ve come to expect from the award-winning composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.