Curtis Opera Theatre is set to present “La Passion de Simone” by Kaija Saariaho and Amin Maalouf.

The work will be perfumed by the Curtis New Music Ensemble at Philadelphia Film Center’s Mainstage Theater on Feb. 26, 2026 and Feb. 28, 2026, at 2:00 p.m.

Led by innovative director and new media artist Marcus Shields, “La Passion de Simone” will feature soprano Nikan Ingabire Kanate as Narrator and soprano Jeysla Rosario Santos as Reader, alongside a vocal quartet featuring soprano Maya Mor-Mitrani, mezzo-soprano Carlyle Quinn, tenor Henry Drangel, and bass-baritone Sebastian Wittmoser Herrera.

The production also features members of Curtis New Music Ensemble under the baton of conductor Marc Lowenstein, founding music director of Los Angeles experimental opera company The Industry.

The work immerses listeners in the spiritual thoughts of Simone Weil, whose pursuit of justice shaped 20th-century thought.

In a statement Shields said, “One of Weil’s most radical ideas was that attention is the purest form of generosity. To truly look at something, to see another person’s suffering without turning away, is for her an ethical act. She refused comfort and belonging—and refused to look away from suffering. In a world saturated with distraction, this idea feels startlingly contemporary.”

Inspired by the Baroque Passion Play, this powerful work consists of 15 stations, an iteration of the Christian mediation on the 14 Stations of the Cross. Each movement presents a different character and structure, shedding light on significant moments in Weil’s life. Listeners are guided through scenes by a soprano narrator, contributing to the work’s sense of flow and ethereal strangeness.

“In this production, we do not attempt to illustrate Weil’s biography,” Shields continues. “Instead, we create a visual and spatial environment that allows the audience to inhabit the act of contemplation itself. The stage becomes a field of perception. Bodies, light, sound, and space are arranged so that we experience stillness, distance, proximity, and time as Weil might have experienced.

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