Anddiction number 66, extra-large edition that of International Festival of Contemporary Musicwith over 300 artists on stage in Venice until 25 September. Out of Stage is called the Biennale Musica 2022and the director explains why, Lucia Ronchetti: “By” other scene “we mean works conceived for places and situations different from those offered by the traditional stage, which outline a broad perspective of musical theater today and the role of new technologies, multimedia, with virtual reality programming and applied augmented reality to the sound, according to new forms and genres ».
A guide to orient yourself
Lucia Ronchetti, director of the Music Sector of the Venice Biennale (photo Andrea Avezzù).
“These are scenic concerts, immersive sound installations, radio works, performance readings, experimental performances, new forms of vocal and instrumental theater inspired by the sacred representation and the representative madrigal »he continues the composerwhose creations are regularly featured from Germany to Korea, from France to Canada. And the appointments find an added value in the suggestive locations, an emotion in itself: give them spaces of the Arsenale to the La Fenice Theaterfrom the Sansovinian hall of the Marciana Library alla St. Mark’s Basilicafrom the Chapter room of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco to the Goldoni Theater.
Many i works commissioned ad hoc by the Biennale to number one in contemporary music, by Helena Tulve ad Annelies Van Parys to Paolo Buonvino. But here – in the rich and sophisticated program of the event – the five unmissable events.
Helena Tulve
Helena Tulve (© Mari Arnover).
On 21 September, at 9 pm, appointment in the Basilica of San Marco (which alone would be worth the ticket) with a world premiere: Visions by Helena Tulveauthor of both the score and the libretto that mixes fragments of a medieval sacred representation (found by Giulio Cattin in Santa Maria della Fava) with the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene, from the 2nd century.
“In this world of violence and hostility I feel more than ever the need to honor and give space to the dimension ofimaginalisthat is not to the “utopian” imaginary but to the true space of the soul ” explains the 50-year-old Estonian composerwhose researches are placed on a line of continuity with those of compatriot Arvo Pärt. “The sacred representations constitute a level of the topography of these intermediate worlds. The space of the church, full of symbols and images, is a model of our own inner sacred space that we are not really able to understand, but we can rather perceive, like Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary ”.
Annelies Van Parys
Annelies Van Parys (© Trui Hanoulle).
It was also born on the initiative of Biennale Musica Notwehr (self-defense) of the Belgian composer Annelies Van Parys. «Dedicated» she says «to Maria Kalesnikava (Belarusian activist and musician, ed) and all the other brave women who have lost their freedom fighting for a better world. What is freedom? And what are we willing to sacrifice for it? ».
The plot of the work is linear: a young demonstrator is arrested and ends up in a cell with an older bartender, accused of murder. Forced coexistence pushes them to open up to each other. From a musical point of view, Van Parys intertwines her notes with the madrigals of the late Renaissance composer Adriano Banchieri, and the writer Gaea Schoeters inserts the ancient texts in the libretto.
The Klein artist
Another world premiere: Klein’s experimental performance for voice, guitar and electronics with the contribution the American composer and producer of Taiwanese origins X. Lee and the experimental musician and Florentine DJ Daniele Carcassi. Author of sound collages between Rithm and Blues and electronics, the Anglo-Nigerian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist has an eclectic range of sources of inspiration (by the American singer Brandy to the composer of musicals Andrew Lloyd Webberby the rapper Soulja Boy to the reality show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta) and is also known for her collaborations with Marck Leckey and Mica Levi and as a supporter chosen by Björk for Cornwall’s Eden Project, in 2018.
For Biennale Musica is inspired by the concept of parallax, that perceptual phenomenon in which an observed object seems to change position with respect to the background depending on the point of observation. With all the psycho-sociological implications that can be guessed …
Yvette Janine Jackson
Yvette Janine Jackson (photo Catherine Koch).
Art & activism also come together in the creations of Yvette Janine Jackson, which premieres Left Behind, a radio work on the environmental and socio-economic impact of space tourism (that of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, so to speak) on the communities living near the launch bases. “Radio alludes to the golden age of radio dramas “explains Jackson, who in the past used this “formula” in Destination Freedom And Invisible Peoplefocused on the history of oppression of the African-American people and the diaspora «In which music, sound effects and dialogue were combined to help the listener imagine the show; Opera refers to the format of the great works. I want to create a dialogue: the creative process begins with my desire to discuss a topic. Then I begin to wonder how that argument might sound. ‘
Left Behind will be performed by the Radio Opera Workshop ensemble, created by Jackson in 2020 with members from the United States, Canada, Australia: the vocalist Malesha Jessie Taylor, Joy Guidry III on bassoon, Amy Cimini to the electric viola, Judith Hamann on the cello, Tommy Babinand on the double bass. She assigned herself the live electronicsthe production and electroacoustic manipulation of sounds during performance.
Buonvino at the Music Biennale with Dior
It is not made of sound alone the event Çiatu, premiered. There is the music of Paolo Buonvinoalso known as the author of soundtracks, but there is also the visual impact offered by the installation of theItalian-German artist Irma Blank edto the costumes created by the artistic director of Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
“Breathing, a primary and involuntary existential act, makes us all identical, regardless of geographies, religions and eras” he underlines the Sicilian composer (çiatu in dialect it means “breath” and, translated, “my life”, “my soul”). “The sound and rhythm of the breath, naturally correlated to that of the heart, are filmed live and become part of the composition, like a duet, an exchange between the most intimate part that animates us and keeps us alive, the breath. and what we listen to: music. The score in turn gives a time to the breath of the listener and this rhythm restores the purity of the first breath: the origin ».
The instrumental part is entrusted to Park of Contemporary Music Ensemble,directed by Tonino Di Battistato which the vocalists are added Rossella Ruini, Badara Seck, Faisal Taher.
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