A video installation/concert that navigates between a baroque still-life and a contemporary ritual.
The Garden is a video-polyptych-concert for voice and electronics, an installation for a theatre or exhibition space. Muziektheater Transparant asked the stage director Luigi De Angelis and his company Fanny & Alexander to imagine a video installation/concert that navigates between a baroque still-life and a contemporary ritual. Inspired by the Baroque Passions, The Garden provides emotional evidence of the suffering of others through the archings of Claron McFadden’s voice, wrapped in contemporary electronic music composed by Emanuele Wiltsch Barberio.
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The Garden by Fanny & Alexander is an installation for 7 voice displays and electronica, which oscillate between the still life of Baroque and a contemporary documentary, that reflect on the theme of suffering in the arts. “Why does a subject recur so often in art such as suffering? Are we perhaps nothing else than consumers of the pain of others, or does it really exist inside us as a space for compassion? Is there a sublime beauty in suffering? An ambiguity? What are the stories of our time that this suffering reverberates in? Should the arts- can the arts- absorb all this? “. To answer these questions director Luigi De Angelis, along with soprano Claron McFadden and composer Emanuele Wiltsch Barberio, set up a music gallery of lamentations and musical memories of the past that recall the theme of suffering: from Monteverdi to J. C. Bach, from Nina Simone to Giovanni Legrenzi, passing through Barbara Strozzi and John Downland. The arches of the voice, wrapped within an electronic contemporary musical dimension, become the emotional testimony of suffering of others, as well as the protagonists of a video / concert, halfway between baroque still life and contemporary ritual.
“The video portraits do not make suffering a spectacle to watch because the pain is internalized thanks to the singing of Claren McFadden who filters the image and gives it color.”
27.10.2021 - Arttribune
“Passion concert with a bitter beauty … The interplay between McFadden and Wiltsch is barely visible … He stands behind an electronica instrument with which he conjures sounds and transforms, repeats, whispers McFadden’s voice … The images are still lifes filled with intense emotions, like baroque paintings depicting the Passion … This religious ritual of still life, vocal interplay, singing and electronica has a bitter beauty, both visually and in terms of sound composition.”
26.05.2022 - Theaterkrant - Kester Freriks
“McFadden is the superlative ... "The Garden" conquers and moves ... A unique theatrical concert built from sounds and visions with emotional impact.”
18.07.2022 - Gli Stati Generali
Credits
- Concept | Direction | Video • Luigi De Angelis
- Composition • Emanuele Wiltsch Barberio
- Costumes • Chiara Lagani
- Sound design • Damiano Meacci / Tempo Reale
- Cast • Claron McFadden / Emanuele Wiltsch Barberio
| Location | Dates | Hour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravenna Festival (Ravenna) +39 0544 249211 www.ravennafestival.org Show on map | 5/7/2022 6/7/2022 | 21:00 21:00 | |
| November Music Nederland ('s-Hertogenbosch) +31 73 612 20 00 www.novembermusic.net Show on map | 8/11/2022 | 19:00 | |
| ateliersi (Bologna ) https://ateliersi.it Show on map | 14/12/2022 15/12/2022 | 21:00 19:30 |