Composer’s program note:
This virtuoso musical escapade for string quartet is inspired by the audacious, real-life theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in 1911.
The most famous painting in the world began its life very unassumingly. In 1503, it was created by Leonardo for the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned the portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini. The occasion marked the birth of their second son – especially significant given the tragically high levels of maternal and infant mortality in those days.
The extraordinary true story of the theft of the Mona Lisa reads like the plot of some sensational Hollywood movie. An inconspicuous Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia hid overnight in one of the Louvre closets and chose exactly the right moment to emerge and lift the painting off the wall. As a former museum employee, he was familiar with the rhythm of the guards. The whole thing was, as they say, an inside job.
The music of this piece is fueled by the knowledge that it was, in fact, a high profile theft (and a subsequent two-year disappearance) that skyrocketed the Mona Lisa from a relatively unknown artwork into legend.
Unfolding in three sections, the piece is built upon two main themes representing ‘Lisa’ and ‘the heist’, respectively. In the first section, as we imagine a young lady with an enigmatic smile posing for her portrait, Lisa’s theme is introduced on the cello as the violins evoke gentle brushstrokes. The second section is announced by a restless and slightly ‘wonky’ cello pizzicato groove – the heist is underway. As the perpetrators reach their mark, Lisa’s theme makes a rushed and unsettled reappearance as her portrait is whisked away. The music reaches a chaotic climax immediately after the violins imitate police sirens, and then collapses. The third section jump-cuts to present-day Paris. Lisa is back in her rightful place at the museum, elevated in stature, status, and celebrity.
We tend to forget that Lisa was a real person. As I worked on this music, I thought less about the masterly technique and artistry of the portrait than I did about Lisa herself. I imagined her as a character who moved through time – from humble obscurity, through a sudden and mysterious disappearance, to the kind of over-hyped fame that attracts 30,000 visitors daily. I can’t help but wonder whether Lisa would have wanted all this attention, not to mention from all the selfie-takers.
In the last few seconds of the piece, the heist theme makes a brief appearance. Could Lisa be taken from us again? And might she actually prefer to disappear altogether?
Dinuk Wijeratne, 2022