Fire in My Mouth review: Julia Wolfe’s oratorio brings 1911 factory disaster into focus
Julia Wolfe’s multimedia oratorio Fire in My Mouth received its London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall, performed by Marin Alsop, the Philharmonia and three choirs. The work recounts the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York, in which 146 garment workers, mostly recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women, died after escape routes were locked by management.
Julia Wolfe’s 2019 multimedia oratorio Fire in My Mouth received its London premiere at the Royal Festival Hall. Marin Alsop conducted the Philharmonia and three choirs.
The work concerns the deaths of 146 workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village, New York, on Saturday 25 March 1911.
Most of those who died were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women. The source account says many were prevented from escaping by stairwells and exits locked by management.
The oratorio is the third large-scale work in Wolfe’s series about the history of the American worker and opened the Southbank Centre’s autumn season.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
How did locked stairwells and exits affect workers’ ability to escape the fire?
What conditions allowed management to keep escape routes locked?
How might the work’s multimedia form shape audiences’ understanding of the disaster?
What historical experiences are emphasized or left outside the oratorio’s account?
YOUR QUESTION
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · AUGUST 2026