Vivaldi's Four Seasons gets climate change makeover

[October 25, 2023] MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish music director has adapted Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" to the grim reality of global warming, adding prominence and drama to the summer concerto while shortening the other three, and he believes the Italian great would not mind.
 
"I think Vivaldi would have been a lot more aggressive and gritty. If today someone were to compose 'The Four Seasons' from an absolutely realistic perspective, it would be frankly daring," composer and producer Hache Costa told Reuters.  

Violinist Simon Garcia plays an adaptation of Antonio Vivaldi's famous “The Four Seasons” concertos as a screen shows an image of flooding on International Day against Climate Change in Madrid, Spain, October 24, 2023. Spanish music director Hache Costa has reimagined Antonio Vivaldi's famous “The Four Seasons” concertos to depict the climate changes that the world is facing 300 years after the masterpiece was written. REUTERS/Susana Vera

The original opus was composed exactly 300 years ago. The adapted version will premiere on Tuesday at Madrid's popular EDP Gran Via venue, coinciding with the global Climate Action Day.

It will be accompanied by projected images of wildfires and other effects of climate change, such as drought.

"I would love the audience to feel really bothered at some point by becoming truly aware of what is happening," added Costa, who has made the sheet music freely available for anyone to play.

Scientists have linked searing temperatures and dry and windy conditions in many parts of the world, including southern Europe, to climate change.

Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, president of the Spanish meteorology association, said the impact of climate change in Spain was evident.

"The trend is for longer, more intense heatwaves, and associated with the heatwaves there can be more violent wildfires, and also stronger rainfall with potentially catastrophic effects," he said.

(Reporting by Antoine Demaison and Silvio Castellanos, writing by Andrei Khalip; editing by David Latona and Bernadette Baum)

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