Scène Révoltée

PROJECT PRESENTATION

The Revolted Scene

After the exceptional Cinderella in the Land of the Soviets (2009), which associated music and images, bringing together works by Prokofiev, Shostakovitch and Larry Weinstein's film Shostakovitch against Stalin, Bahar and Ufuk Dördüncü engage in a new ambitious challenge.

The Revolted Scene is a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Claude Debussy and the aesthetic turning point experienced by music, poetry and dance between 1912 and 1913.

To reflect the effervescence of the time The Revolted Scene summon, alongside Debussy, the musical, literary and choreographic material of Mallarmé, Stravinski, Diaghilev and Nijinski, drawing from the following masterpieces: Le Faune by the French poet, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Jeux by Debussy as well as Le Sacre du Printemps by the Russian composer.

If Le Faune by Mallarmé dates back to 1876 and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Debussy to 1894, the choreographies of Nijinski's Ballets Russes, which provide a real link between the suggested pieces gathered here, date back to 1912 (l'Aprèsmidi) and 1913 (Jeux and Le Sacre).

To emphasise the choreographic component archive images and choreographic productions extrapolated on the basis of Nijinski's notes, sketches and photographs will be screened.

Fabrice Aragno, co-producer of Jean-Luc Godard's last films, will propose the imagery, mixing archive material with images of the pianists and the reader. The ambition is not to combine poetry, music and pictures didactically, but to mingle words, sounds and images to create an unprecedented concert.

The comedian, who will act as the guide, and whose voice will be as important as his physical presence, will convey the arabesque of Mallarmé's language, while evoking the circumstances of the 1912-1913 “revolution”. On the basis of evidence drawn from reliable sources (the French text will be available in March), he will narrate the relationship between Debussy, Mallarmé and Stravinski, the misunderstanding by the French musician of Nijinski's art, and, naturally, the nature of the intuitions guiding each artist.

It will become apparent that no spontaneous fusion of views occurred between these different transformers of the art scene. Equally apparent will be the audience's reaction to the different works: sometimes mild, often shocked!

An evening that will delight music, poetry and dance enthusiasts as well as those fascinated by the ruptures of art history and those challenged by the thin border between human and animal nature, aesthetic stylisation and delirious panic. Matthieu Menghini, historian of cultural action and former theatre director.