The threat of nuclear energy is a recurring issue in these troubled times. We hear the names of Astravas, Visaginas, Zaporizhia and other nuclear power plants being bandied about in the world and Lithuanian media. Many of us remember the Chernobyl disaster thirty-six years ago and its dramatic consequences. On the twentieth anniversary of the accident, Christos Hatzis, a Greek composer living in Canada, composed the magnificent cantata Wormwood (Chornobyl), which is dedicated to memory and warning. To remember the victims of the disaster and to warn against the threat of nuclear power that is not going away.
The idea for the cantata came to the composer after learning that the Ukrainian word “Chornobyl” means “wormwood” (Artemisia absinthium) and comparing this meaning with the apocalyptic book “Revelation to John” (the last book of the New Testament), which mentions wormwood as the means by which a large part of humanity will be exterminated. Influenced by this link, Hatzis has composed a spectacular cantata, whose music ranges from gospel to contemporary sounds, while the text presents the apocalyptic prophecies of the Revelation of John and interprets them freely, through the prism of the composer’s vision.