Ensemble C Barré en concert avec les Neue Vocalsolisten

Songs and voices

concert
© Pierre Gondard

The title of the play Five Songs (Kafka’s Sirens) alludes to Franz Kafka’s short story The Silence of the Sirens. In his story, Kafka does not tell an alternative story to the one in The Odyssey, a story that would say that the sirens did not sing, but rather suggests a paradox: he insinuates a doubt of perspective, where perhaps lies what attracts Ulysses so much to approach sirens…

It is to this paradoxical perspective that Songs and voices refers. It is a form in which the poetic question is: what remains of the song when the voice disappears? This presence of song in the absence of a singing voice is the source of the sound research. And this first question leads to another: what is the voice without the singing?

Exploring these two dimensions has led to the creation of a vocal and instrumental musical journey between two extremes: extreme absence and extreme presence. A concert for six singers (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass), ten instrumentalists (clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, accordion, percussion, mandolin, guitar, harp, cello, double bass) and live electronics.

Program :

Staff :

A piece for 6 voices [coloratura soprano, lyric soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass], 10 instrumentalists [clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, accordion, mandolin, guitar, harp, percussion, cello, double bass] and electronics.
Commissioned by the French State, co-commissioned by Ensemble C Barré, the Venice Biennale, Le Grame, Ircam – Centre Pompidou, Wittener Tage Für Neue Kammermusik, GMEM – Centre National de création musicale, Festival Eclat Stuttgart.

Creation :

French

Distribution :

Neue Vocalsolisten de Stuttgart :
Johanna Vargas, coloratura soprano
Susanne Leitz Lorey, lyric soprano
Truike Van Der Poel, mezzo-soprano
Martin Nagy, tenor
Guillermo Anzorena, baritone
Andreas Fischer, bass

Ensemble C Barré:
Annelise Clément, clarinet
Joël Versavaud, saxophone
Matthias Champon, trumpet
Elodie Soulard, accordion
Claudio Bettinelli, percussion
Rémy Reber, guitar
Natalia Korsak, mandolin
Eva Debonne, harp
Marine Rodallec, cello
Charlotte Testu, double bass

Sébastien Boin, musical director

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

March 26th 2024
Renaissance théâtre, Lyon
B!ME

Delegated production, Ensemble C Barré
Coproduction with the Venice Biennale, Le Grame, Ircam – Centre Pompidou, Wittener Tage Für Neue Kammermusik, GMEM – Centre National de création musicale, Festival Eclat Stuttgart.

Supported by
Impuls Neue Musik, Ersnt Von Siemens Music Fondation, la SACEM, Fondation Société Générale – c’est vous l’avenir, Fondation Orange

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