Le Colosse de Mahdia

The work revolves around the values shared by the texts of Le Colosse de Mahdia and Le Nouveau Colosse, namely the themes of immigration, the dream of another world, the land of welcome, peace and freedom, and finally, music as hope during the crossing.
Olivier Calmel’s creation comprises 4 movements. The first three movements are based on a text by Pierre-Henri Loÿs: Le Colosse de Mahdia. The text of the finale is based on Le Nouveau Colosse, a famous sonnet written by the American Emma Lazarus in 1883, engraved on a plaque mounted on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, of which it has become a symbol.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refusal of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus,1883