A piece for singer, dancer, electronics and instrumental ensemble (2020).
Experimental music theatre by Pia Palme, Paola Bianchi, Juliet Fraser, Irene Lehmann, Christina Fischer-Lessiak − an artistic research collaboration group as part of the PEEK Project On the fragility of sounds
Duration 60’
Pia Palme – concept, composition, text, bass recorder
Juliet Fraser − voice (soprano), dance
Paola Bianchi − choreography, dance
Christina Fischer-Lessiak − artistic assistant, research, production
Irene Lehmann − dramaturgy
Lars Mlekusch – conductor
Molly McDolan − oboe da caccia
Sonja Leipold – harpsichord
Ensemble PHACE
Doris Nicoletti – flutes | Reinhold Brunner – bass clarinets | Daniele Brekyte – violin | Rafał Zalech – viola | Barbara Riccabona – violoncello | Alexandra Dienz – double bass | Berndt Thurner – percussion
Veronika Mayerböck – light
Christian Sundl – event assistant
For the video & trailer
Michaela Schwentner – film direction and concept, editing
Christina Bauer – sound design, recording
Martin Siewert – sound editing
Martin Putz – camera
Produktion FWF PEEK Projekt On the fragility of Sounds AR 537
mit Unterstützung der KUG Kunstuniversität Graz, ZfG
Koproduktion mit Wien Modern 33.
@WUK Vienna, Projektraum
Download the evening programme here:
A montage for the Anthropocene?
The piece is an experiment, an experimental opera, a music theatre work in the widest sense.
Pia Palme: ‘I began with some devised material which I knew would form only a starting point; the process is like walking into a room with a blindfold on.’
Paola Bianchi uses her archive of postures to work from:
‘I have been using my archive of postures (or non-postures, collective images), which I am interested to share with others to see how they are transformed. These are my tools. It is like seeing how different ingredients fit together or can be destroyed.’
The planned premiere and the performances were not open to the public. We arranged the venue Projektraum at WUK into a Corona-safe theatre-space and rehearsed the piece. Performances were recorded and filmed. We adapted the spatial concept so that the necessary distances could be kept between the members of the ensemble as well as between all the performers. Thus, what you see here is an adapted Corona arrangement and choreography. The composition was finished during the first lockdown in Austria and a residency in Switzerland, later in 2020. The artistic process resonates the overall situation during that time.
Venue: WUK Projektraum, Währinger Str. 59, 1090 Wien
Time of recordings: 13. – 15. 11. 2020 , without audience.
Photos by David Visnjic
About the piece
Combining the distinctive creative process of choreographer Paola Bianchi with the compositional practice of Pia Palme, the piece is being devised in an experimental, non-hierarchical, collaborative way, using both devised material and improvisation. The question of transmission between disciplines is woven into the process, embracing the particularities of each individual. Soprano Juliet Fraser brings in her expertise as performer, bringing together Palme’s score with Bianchi’s oral instructions, giving feedback at every step during the process. The theatre scholar Dr. Irene Lehman and Christina Lessiak, musicologist and cultural worker, join the group and further enrich the collaborative practice and discourse. The results explore the consonance, dissonance and interferences between voice and body, a polyphony in which movement shapes music, sound shapes bodies.
(German)
Der transdisziplinäre Zusammenschluss bestehend aus der Komponistin Pia Palme, der Tänzerin/Choreografin Paola Bianchi, der Sängerin Juliet Fraser, der Theaterwissenschaftlerin Irene Lehmann und der Musikologin Christina Fischer-Lessiak arbeitet seit 2019 künstlerisch-forschend an Wechselwirkung und weiteren Projekten in Graz und Wien. Diese wachsende kollaborative Struktur rund um Pia Palme entwickelte sich aus vorangehenden Projekten mit Juliet Fraser (seit 2012, 2015 Mordacious Lips, to Dust) und Paola Bianchi (2013, ABSTRIAL). Die experimentelle Arbeitsweise der Gruppe lebt von der wechselseitigen Beeinflussung der individuellen Akteur*innen und vom Ineinandergreifen der unterschiedlichen Praktiken und Wissensvorräte.
“Körper bewegt, im Raum. Sie singt, keucht, atmet – stehend, drehend – sie kniet, liegt, rollt vor meinen Füßen, ihre hohe Stimme wandert mit, bis in meine Sohlen kann ich sie hören. Verliere mich in diesen angespannten Körpern, die quer über den Tanzboden kriechen. Zittern. In solcher Nähe zu diesen Menschen. Hör jetzt nicht auf zu singen! Sie erinnert sich: an die Einsamkeit. Sie möchte allein sein und doch nicht. Der Klang der Worte fasziniert sie, lesend hört sie nach innen: Lasciatemi morire, damals wie heute. Sie seufzt: Wie probt man, wie komponiert man, und, wie bitte, plant man erfolgreich eine Musiktheateraufführung während dieser Pandemie?
Sie denkt und schreibt:
Wie denn eine Brücke schlagen zu einem anderen Ufer,
das sich windet, verkrochen im Nebel nicht zu vermessen ist?”
