operAct and Ensemble Variances present : Sefarad’s Sephardic songs and music revisited by Thierry Pécou
With Gaëlle Méchaly, soprano, Thierry Pécou, composer, and the Ensemble Variances Stephan Grögler : Conception, set designing and stage direction Costumes : PEACHOO+KREJBERG Lights : Cyril Mulon
Our aim is for this project to be invitation to a voyage into an intimate memory, imbued with the past and an ancestral, traditional, learned repertoire that has highly diverse influences, drawing its sources from popular cultures. This performance combines music and contemporary art by associating ancient melodies with contemporary compositions, enriching contributions of artists from different disciplines create a unique and unusual moment of poetry with Sephardic song at the heart of the work. Its form: both a recital and a staged performance. Its scenic qualities: an autonomous object-sculpture-space that does not require any specific theatre equipment (an ordinary electrical connection is all that is needed). It can be performed in traditional venues as well as in more atypical settings, such as contemporary arts museums, industrial wastelands, public spaces, etc. Its multidisciplinary aspect: a staged concert that associates ancient songs and contemporary compositions, a musical style that is rooted in tradition with lighting inspired by contemporary art, staged in a style and with plastic elements that are closely linked to the main theme. This is in fact a harmonious synthesis of the contributions of artists who come from extremely varied horizons.