Barbara, meet Brel !
The Ensemble Aedes pays homage to brel and barbara in a programme of a cappella songs especially arranged for the choir. The Ensemble invited nine composers from different musical backgrounds to rework the two artists’ greatest hits.
Jean-Michel Fournereau’s moving and poetic staging enhances the harmony between the lyrics and the melodies of these two stupendous artists, as the singers become the protagonists of love stories entwining and then unravelling in song.
In a place as strange and vague as a Magritte painting, a silent character (Mathieu Romano) imagines a series of love stories, the couples finding refuge in their dreams, memories and desires. The lovers’ pursuit, love and separation evoke an impossible dream, a headlong dash, shattered illusions.
An unprecedented show at the crossroads between choral singing and the greatest of French chanson.
Jacques BREL Le Gaz (arr. Manuel Peskine)
BARBARA Hop-là (arr. Julien Joubert)
Jacques BREL Les fenêtres (arr. Vincent Manac’h)
Jacques BREL L’amour est mort (arr. Fabien Touchard)
BARBARA Attendez que ma joie revienne (arr. Victor Jacob)
Jacques BREL Voir un ami pleurer (arr. Philip Lawson)
Jacques BREL Grand-mère (arr. François Saint-Yves)
Jacques BREL L’air de la bêtise (arr. Victor Jacob)
BARBARA L’aigle noir (arr. Philip Lawson)
Jacques BREL Ne me quitte pas (arr. Christophe Looten)
BARBARA Dis, quand reviendras-tu ? (arr. Manuel Peskine)
Jacques BREL La valse à mille temps (arr. Julien Joubert)
BARBARA La mort (arr. Manuel Peskine)
Jacques BREL Le tango funèbre (arr. Manuel Peskine)
BARBARA Gauguin (arr. Aurélien Dumont)
Jacques BREL La quête (arr. Fabien Touchard)
PROGRAMME AVAILABLE IN CONCERT VERSION
1 hour 15 minutes with no interval
17 singers
1 conductor
1 lighting technician
Mathieu Romano conductor
Jean-Michel Fournereau director
Gilles Fournereau lighting
Justine Bougerol set design
Gilles Baudoux costumes
An Ensemble Aedes, Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne, Cité de la Voix, Vézelay, Théâtre d’Auxerre co-production