Calendar

SATURDAY 23 JUNE 2018, 20H15, Landcommanderij Alden Biesen (Belgian preview)

FRIDAY 10 AUGUST 2018, 20H, de Biekorf Theaterzaal Bruges (Belgian première)

IMAGO MUNDI

Lore Binon soprano, Bobby Mitchell pianoforte, Sofie Vanden Eynde lute & teorbo, Anouk De Clercq & Tom Callemin visuals, Jo Thielemans electronics, Luc Schaltin light, Robert Zuidam composition

In My End is My Beginning

Mary Stuart — a historical figure and a myth spun in the imaginations of countless artists, writers and composers from Joseph Brodsky to Thomas Edison, Giacomo Carissimi and Robert Schumann. Who was she?

Lore Binon and Sofie Vanden Eynde have set out to create a consciously historical and contemporary soundscape which preserves this multiplicity, combining voice, lute, theorbo, piano and electronics. Mary Stuart’s significance in art and myth provides a wealth of inspiration for exploring the complexity of the human mind and the universal emotions unleashed by her story. Passion —Mary Stuart’s preference for following her heart rather than the straight and narrow — her profound loneliness throughout the long years of her captivity, and the oppressiveness of her historical and social position are three key points of departure for the creators of this performance.

In order to source pieces for their performance, Binon and Vanden Eynde have turned, on the one hand, to the rich musical context in which Mary Stuart lived, including works by William Byrd, Claudin de Sermisy, Robert Johnson, Thomas Tallis, and others. On the other, they drew from compositions which take her as their subject: the heart-rending Lamento della regina Maria Stuarda by the Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi, Schumann’s Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, and instrumental passages from Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. A composition competition was also announced to provide some of the sonnets dedicated to Mary, Queen of Scots by the Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky with musical settings. Additional sources of inspiration include the songs from the Nazi-era film Das Herz der Königin and Thomas Edison’s 1895 short film The Execution of Mary Stuart. The project forges new relationships between voice, lute, theorbo, piano and electronics: a prepared piano provides the basso continuo, there is an orchestral reduction to be played on the theorbo, the electronics are a binding leitmotif, and the voice is an accompanying instrument. The various possibilities opened up by this combination of instruments is reason enough to go in search of unexpected sounds, with Luciano Berio’s Recital I (for Cathy) lighting the way. With careful dramatisation and sensitive direction, the project could grow into a chamber opera with solid musical and dramatic underpinnings, above which Mary Stuart’s complexity as a character would truly get a chance to shine.

With the support of the Flemish government

https://www.musica.be/nl/activities/my-end-my-beginning

MAFestival

FRIDAY 13 JULY 2018, 12H, Conservatoire Brussels

Trio Khaldei

Frits Celis, Trio op.5

Maurice Ravel, Piano trio

Midis-Minimes

TUESDAY 24 JULY 2018, 20U, Dominicanenkerk Knokke

Revue Blanche

Music by Debussy, Ravel, De Falla, Granados

Klassiek Leeft Meesterlijk