Seat selection on map [Lille Opera | 31.03.2026 - 20:00 | Departing] - Opéra de Lille

As a child of divorce, American composer and minimalist music pioneer Steve Reich regularly made the round-trip journey from New York to Los Angeles by train. During the long trips, he couldn’t get an idea out of his mind: given his Jewish roots, if he’d been born just a little earlier in Europe, he probably would have travelled in different trains. The thought gave rise to his 1988 piece Different Trains, for string quartet and pre-recorded tape. As for Dmitri Shostakovich, who almost never left Russia, he was nearing the end of the line of life when he wrote his fifteenth and final string quartet – a delicate but haunting account of his internal desintegration.

This will be the first performance at the Opéra de Lille by the Cologne-based Asasello Quartett – one of Germany’s most renowned string quartets for the contemporary, classical and romantic repertoires.

Steve Reich Different Trains (1988)
Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor (1974)

Asasello Quartett

approx. 1hr.10 min. (no interval)