In 1912 a pivotal piece of music – Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire – was premiered in Berlin, inspiring an entirely new approach to the using the voice in music. Stravinsky and Ravel responded with two pieces, premiered together in January of 1914, for a similar ensemble and their own unique reframing of the voice. A century later, Evan Kassof’s Three French Songs were written in London and inspired deeply by each of these three works. ENAensemble’s presentation of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé, Stravinsky’s Three Japanese Lyrics, and Kassof’s Three French Songs, features a highly theatricalized interpretation of the works. Actors will move through the music and the space as an ensemble of nine players and four singers give voice and urgency to this paranoid, beautiful, troubled, obsessive, funny, and tragic music. ENAensemble’s presentation of chasing the moon is funded in part by a Vice Provost for the Arts Student Grant from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
The writers for the poems are:
Albert Giraud - Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg)
Stéphane Mallarmé - Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (Ravel)
Yamabe no Akahito, Minamoto no Masazumi, and Ki no Tsurayuki - Three Japanese Lyrics (Stravinsky)
Théodore de Banville - Three French Songs (Kassof)
Philly Theatre Week:
Saturday, February 16th - 7pm
Tickets: $15
