WINTERREISE
Winterreise (The Winter Journey)/AZ
In 2014, I co-directed, together with Johan Simons, Schubert’s « The Winter Journey » interspersed with interludes « AZ » by contemporary composer Mark Andre. The dramaturgy was by Jan Vandenhouwe and the scenography by the artist Michaël Borremans. The soloists were baritone Georg Nigl, accompanied by pianist Andreas Staier, with interventions by members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. The general concept was to produce a ritual piece specifically for concert halls.
In the first part, soloist and instrumentalists are all on stage. The singer revisits, relives and plays with his memories, while the instrumentalists, like shadows of the singer himself or of the images that appear to him, transform what, initially, is a familiar environment – a large table of presences and absences – into a desert and nocturnal forest, which rises from that same table.Thus, they prepare the trip, while little by little they leave the stage to sit with the audience, where they continue to interpret the various interludes.
In the second part, the singer, accompanied only by the pianist on stage, undertakes a journey that, much more than a journey through places, is a journey through the known/unknown universe of his own interior, in which he performs a rite. This rite conjures up his memories, his concerns to, finally, transform him, perhaps into himself and, thus, transcend himself.
« The Winter Journey – AZ » was a great success and toured many concert halls in Europe. It began at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, to continue at the Bozar in Brussels, at the Philarmonie in Rotterdam, at the Maison de la Culture in Grenoble, at the Grand Théâtre in Aix-en-Provence, at Le Volcan in Le Havre, to finish at the Philarmonie in Cologne.
