Hanon Reznikov, Andrea Liberovici
Andrea Liberovici
Andrea Liberovici
Judith Malina
Hanon Reznikov
Ottavia Fusco
Filippo Garrone, Serena Nono, Salis & Vitangeli
GRM-INA
teatrodelsuono
Alessandra Vinotto Sukkar
Oratory for actors in 64 movements by Andrea Liberovici through the acoustic memory of the Living Theatre from J. Cage on today.
"The dreams are so silent that I often wonder why we speak so much in
theatre. Nevertheless the theatre is like a dream, like a show where actresses
play a pièce with words but without pronouncing them. Only scenic actions
and effects. Sometimes the sound of music, sometimes that one of silence ".
J. Beck - Parigi 1 luglio 1982
"I'm not interest to present things of the past, but I face them
anyway as material that can be used for something else we are doing now, since
they can belong, like a collage, to every work. I believe that a theatrical
operation extremely interesting, that hasn't been never done before, is
to realize a collage made of various theatrical jobs ".
J. Cage
"The scene is static. The only dynamic element is the word. The present
and the past, the memory, the testimony and the present reality confront each
other in the word."
L. Nono - About his music on tape for Ermittlung, of P. Weiss
direction of E. Piscator.
As we all know, The Living Theatre has been the driving force behind theatrical
innovation in the second half of the twentieth century, but it has also inspired
the most brilliant composers of modern music, ranging from J. Cage, who has
composed the incidental music for "The Marrying Maiden" (1960) and
who enjoyed a long-lasting friendship with Julian Beck and Judith Malina, M.
Feldman, as well as Luigi Nono who nonetheless had a difficult relationship
with the company while working on "A floresta é jovem and cheja
de vida" in 1965-66.
The new use of the vocal and sounds both of the scene and of actor's body
has characterized the poetics of The Living Theatre, and it is exactly the material
on which I'm interesting to work, in order not to put into effect a nostalgic
operation of museum neither to celebrate a sort of sanctification. The Living
would firstly disagree. I have been recently in N.Y. to meet Judith and Hanon,
and one of the things that has struck me more during our conversations it has
been Judith's witty remark that resumes essentially the thought of whose,
as great artist, goes on questioning: "Many treat me as monument but I
don't feel like made of marble".
I just think that in this phrase there is the sense of the theatrical operation
of Teatro del Suono and that I want to make with Judith, Hanon, the actress-singer
Ottavia Fusco (as "harmonizing" voice and specifically "singer")
and the great audio archives that they have given to me. Working by translating
but above all betraying and re-calling to memory that is the so-called monument,
pushing it with the due irony but also with as much violence, towards a new
nakedness.
There is also a fundamental element for the construction of this "Oratory
for actors" that is some original tapes, in part published and in part
not, of music for "The Marrying Maiden" composed by J. Cage with the
voices of The Living Theatre. From this important family jewel that Judith and
Hanon have given to me starts this new project.
The drama
I chose to base this musical composition upon the 64-hexagrams structure of
the I-Ching in a spirit of both rigour and freedom. There are 64 movements like
the 64 hexagrams of the Oracle, of different durations for a total of 64 minutes.
There were several reasons of this choice: the first reason was that I wished
to pay homage to J. Cage and to "The Marrying Maiden" that is inspired
by the Oracle (in fact Marrying Maiden is a figure of speech that recurs in
many hexagrams). The second reason is always referred to J. Cage and his use
of the operations with the coins of the I-Ching in order to compose music. I
think his method of composing, which is resumed by this phrase: "I have
changed the method of composing from making choice to make questions" it
can be transformed in: "to choose the made questions". The third reason
is that every hexagram of I' Ching contemplates a moment of man's life,
giving us a rich structure for drama. Every hexagram has a title and an idea
that develops or through symbols, as sky, earth, well, and so on, or through
precise sentences like: war, quarrel, excesses, obey until arriving to a number
that marks the 64 end and therefore the start from the beginning again. This
sort of great circle made of plugs seems to me the best thing to tell the memory
without an obliged chronology. All this is obviously of use for us to order
and re-invent the material and to mount consequently the show but I don't
wish to put it in evidence at all.
The Sound and the Music
The sound and the music that I am realizing in Paris near the prestigious studies
of the Grm-Ina (they look after the French production of this show) will come
reproduced in theatre by sophisticated equipment for the space of the sound
and by "live electronics" applied in real time on the actors (voice
+ body). The Grm gives at my disposal the famous "Acuosmonium", that
is a musical instrument constituted by audio computer and 120 distributed acoustic
diffusers between the scene and the public. The musical operation will be exclusively
deducted and created just starting from the actor's body and the acoustic
memory of the group, from J.Cage on today. It will be therefore defined a dialogue
between a present memory in digital - virtual and a present becoming living
on stage.
The Scene
The "Acousmonium" will fill up the space. It's a musical instrument
made of audio computer and 120 distributed acoustic diffusers between the scene
and the public. 64 images created by four artists (Filippo Garrone, Serena Nono,
Salis & Vitangeli) will be projected on a great and oval screen, and they
will show the titles, the number and the hexagrams played on stage.
Andrea Liberovici