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!

I didn't know what to expect -- and I was completely stunned by the whole
evening.  Briefly, it consists of an equine ballet in which horse and man
are partnered (there's no question of control of one over the other --
there is a truly palpable spiritual bond between four footed and bipedal
artists) performing to three well chosen pieces of music over a ninety
minute time frame.

Act 1 -- Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps
Act 2 -- Boulez: Dialogue de l'ombre double
Act 3 -- Stravinsky: La Symphonie de Psaumes

Talking with Bartabas (troupe leader and choreographer) after the show
I was interested in the juxtaposition of Stravinsky and Boulez -- and
was treated to a twenty minute explanation of the involvement of Boulez
in the artistic inspiration of this show (which has given 140 sold out
performances in Paris alone over the last two seasons) -- he has conducted
it on at least one occasion in the show's home at Aubervilliers, a suburb
of Paris.

A couple of weeks ago I watched Michael Berkeley's TV program on the
Rite of Spring and found it helped me make sense of a powerfully effecting
piece of music.  Nothing, however, prepared me for the power of Zingaro's
interpretation -- especially the 'pagan rite' section, in which the horses
are dominant over the human dancers.  I was also particularly taken by the
Boulez piece for solo clarinet and tape -- not music I have ever been very
fond of but as a piece of performance art in this context I found it
exceptionally appealing.

I'm not yet sure whether I am going to have the right words to be able
to describe this spectacle fully -- that's something I'm going to work on.
Meanhwile, if anybody is interested, there is a website at www.zingaro.fr
that will help give a flavour -- and presumably they will be back at
Aubervilliers some time after their sojourn in the land of E Pluribus
Orange!

Tim Mahon
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