It is sometimes said that baroque scores are full of holes. This may mean that it was also possible for the musicians of the day to improvise to their heart’s content or to ‘jam’. If we were to apply this principle again today, letting baroque musicians and gypsies improvise on themes composed by Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, what would it sound like? It certainly sounded very exciting the first time we tried it, bringing together Fabrizio Cassol (saxophone), Wim Becu (bass sackbut ) and Tcha Limberger (gypsy violin and guitar).

Monteverdi’s ‘Maria Vespers’ is one of the most crucial works in the history of European religious music and one must exercise extreme caution when dealing with it. It is very, very delicate and of exceptional interest. It is one of the first works in which the religion of the community is given a personal touch: the chorus and the first person plural increasingly make way for solos and the first person singular.

I first heard the complete ‘Maria Vespers’ when I was 16 years old, in a church in Ghent on a sweltering summer’s day. It was performed on authentic baroque instruments which sounded slightly out of tune at the end of each section. They therefore had to be constantly retuned. It was perhaps then that I made the link to certain types of gypsy music. And this too may sound a little irreverent, but it is true that at that time I could whistle the whole of Monteverdi’s ‘Maria Vespers’... As far as I’m concerned it is definitely one of the most perfect devotional works.

One also sees extreme forms of devotion in the short films Dr Arthur Van Gehuchten (1861-1914) made of his psychiatric patients. They show peculiar, apparently pointless and useless movements. It is these films, together with the music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries, that form the starting point for the dancers in this piece.

Spectacle à 20.30h

LIEU : Les Ecuries

Boulevard Pierre Mayence 65 - 6000 Charleroi

Un service de Bus Bruxelles/Charleroi A/R est prévu pour la représentation du 24/03

Info et Réservations : 071 20 56 42

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