Tim Mahon:

>Just back from a flying visit to Paris where I took the opportunity of
>visiting the Zingaro spectacle in the company of the committee who are
>importing the show to Southern California for four weeks this autumn.  If
>anybody from SoCal is reading this -- get to the Eclectic Orange festival
>in October at Orange County's Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa -- you
>will not be disappointed!

Indeed you will not be disappointed.  I was so pleased to read Tim Mahon's
account of Bartabas' "equine ballet", "Triptyk", and I can only second all
he had to say.

Only one of the three works was originally written for ballet, and, even
so, not of this kind, but the music becomes all the more beautiful, which
is generally far from the case for me.

Bartabas had asked Boulez if he might use the recording he had just made
of The Rite of Spring and the Psalm Symphony, and Boulez, having seen the
Theatre equestre Zingaro at work, became so taken with the idea that he
also agreed to conduct the Orchestre de Paris and Choeurs for the...  show/
ballet...  spectacle, on three occasions in October 2001.  I saw one of the
three on television, and even on TV, as a 'spectacle complet ' (shades of
Diaghilev...) it worked extremely well.

Bartabas had already had the idea of including one of Boulez's own
pieces in the 'spectacle', and they decided on "Dialogue de l'Ombre
Double" (clarinet and tape) because it is in itself a "circular work",
and acoustically well-adapted in performance to the scenic space of the
circus ring.

Boulez was alarmed at first by the programming which placed the vital,
brilliant Rite before an intimate solo piece (Dialogue), finishing with the
more reverential, meditative Symphony of Psalms.  He was satisfied with the
result - esthetically, poetically, musically and visually moving and
beautiful.

What - with horses?!  Yes, horses, but never any like these...  It is so
original, so different, so sculptural, that words cannot fully convey
exactly what one might expect to see...  - if you can get to see it, just
expect to be stunned, as I was, as Tim was - as Boulez was!

Regards,

Christine Labroche