Baroque dream voyage into the lost paradise of Arcadia

HALLE/MZ. An inscription that heralds happy days stretches across its stomach: "Et in Arcadia ego" are the words on the body of the statue having its feet polished devotedly by an exotic beauty. Arcadia, then, is the name of that lost paradise – the home of shepherds and nymphs that lies somewhere in the middle of nowhere and is only to be reached via this "Anaesthesia". An extra wide array of sounds This “baroque narcosis”, presented by Nico and the Navigators together with the musical ensemble Franui at the opening of the Handel festival in Halle, is an extraordinary dance in a baroque corset. Composers Markus Kraler and Andreas Schett have borrowed melodies from operas such as "Admeto" und "Amadigi", "Rodelinda" und "Rinaldo" as well as from oratorios such as "Belshazzar" und "Israel in Egypt" and adapted them to suit their unique line-up: the saxophone slurs the notes about, the double bass slaps its way lazily through the continuo, the dulcimer delivers its dulcet tones. But on top of everything there is the embracing and struggling of violins and trumpets, cornet and clarinet, tuba and accordion – an extra wide array of sounds that is to place Handel within jazz and then bring him back again to the usual marriages and funerals. Sure enough it is pure baroque that is sung – if under hindered conditions. The fingers of others proliferate like brows above the eyes of soprano Theresa Dhouly as she sings the praises of the "Bel Piacere", baritone Clemens Koelbl hangs upside down at the stage entrance or carries a Harpy around on his shoulders. Terry Wey’s wonderfully melting countertenor voice amazes as would a paranormal phenomenon when he yearningly sings "Piangerò" – a captivatingly tender moment in which the act of creation arises from the music. This is the real theme of the production with which Nicola Hümpel and her stage designer Oliver Proske have bestowed a real exportable hit on Halle’s Neue Theater: the majestic, animal power of sound, with the power to crown kings and transform shy couples into frenzied beasts, to establish identities and rob people of their senses. From the changing tableaux vivants in which the ensemble initially assembles itself the pasticcio unfolds as a play of many parts. It evokes the decadent boredom of the rich and lonely woman and shows how the subjects themselves construct their ruler, real feeling disrupts calculated emotion and the singing is enough to literally give you goose pimples. Body languages It is an ensemble that is equally polyglot in a corporeal sense that has entered into this coproduction with the Bregenz and Herrenhausen festivals as well as with the Grand Théatre Luxembourg. Here we have the steely elegance of the Japanese Yui Kawaguchi, the lightning-quick precision of Alberto Spagone and the shy nonchalence of fellow Italian Filippo Andreatta. And while the Belgian Sylvie Merck is making her own special contribution to hysterical performance and Patrick Schott is moving about the stage as a bone of contention incarnate and as a smiling angel of death, Adrian Gillott blends into the pastel-coloured company as a somnambulant master of ceremonies. Done up in a cap reminiscent of Handel’s and employing the blasé tone of voice of a real dandy, he tells of the parallels between "Powder" and "Power" - and of the precious "Tulips", which could also be misunderstood as "Two Lips". Although it may well be that not every single member of the premiere’s audience understood these enigmatic recitatives, the audience had clearly grasped the deeper sense. And so midnight on the festival’s first day brought with it unanimous and jubilant applause for the most daring performance to have featured in Halle’s Handel festival in recent years. "Anaesthesia" sleepwalks its way towards the spirit of baroque music, on a quest to find its lasting quintessence. The props, however, bring to mind the words of Emily Dickinson: "Hope is the thing with feathers." The last performance takes place on Saturday at 7.30pm at the Neue Theater.

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