LENA HERZOG

I

Last Whispers

“In the beginning was the Word.”
  - The Book of John 1:1 

Today over 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide.

By the end of this century, most of these languages will have fallen silent. 

Faster than the extinction of most endangered species, we are losing our linguistic diversity—the very means by which we know ourselves.

By definition, it occurs in silence, since silence is the very form of this extinction. 

Languages heard in this oratorio are endangered or extinct.

II

Any War Any Enemy

“Every war is a failure of language.”
 - Margaret Atwood

omni * cide
all to kill

“The first thing that must be understood about nuclear war is that it is not war.”
- John Somerville

Today, three nuclear superpowers are on the verge of a world war.

Nine countries in total possess nuclear weapons.

12,000 warheads are scattered across the globe.

2,000 are on high alert, ready to launch within seconds.

Once deployed, they cannot be recalled.

Total destruction will follow.

Those who benefit from a world on the brink of omnicide have prevailed.

They permeate government, business, media, and culture.

They have overtaken the way we think and dream.

As if self-hypnotized, they fall in sync.

***

They need a war.

ANY WAR

ANY ENEMY

***

all or none

III

Reversal

Attici amoris ergo
For the sake of love

“How fragile we are under the sheltering sky.
Behind the sheltering sky is a vast dark universe, and we're just so small.”
- Paul Bowles

“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the night.”
- Dylan Thomas