"Tree of Life" is an allegory for what was happening in 2020.

 

This is an image of a relic forest that died from a storm in 2018 in Italy. It was a forest from the trunks of which violins and cellos were made. This catastrophe formed the basis of a poem by the English poet Betsy de Lotbinière.

 

In April 2020, imprisoned against my will in the city of Rome and looking for new lyrics that could inspire me to create new music, I came across her poetry.

 

Rereading it, I realized that it is this work, with its allegorical meaning and incredibly powerful message, is able to convey what almost all the inhabitants of the globe have been feeling over the past few months.

 

This is how "His Cello's Lament" (the original title of Betsy's poem) is reborn as "Tree of Life" for soprano and cello.

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