Dory Hayley – Récitations by Georges Aperghis
Dory Hayley – Récitations by Georges Aperghis
Saturday, April 22, 2023; 8pm
ANNEX, Vancouver, Canada
Dory Halyey, solo soprano; featuring a visual performance and installation by Matthew Talbot-Kelly/A Knobe Dee.
Récitations by Greek composer, Georges Aperghis, is a solo vocal work divided into 14 separate pieces that are based on a virtuoso combination of phonemes and theatrical sound gestures. The writing is characterized by high speed, repetitions, accumulations and high rhythmic pressure. They solicit the creative participation of both performer and audience, and adapt well to a great versatility of vocal playing modes. An imaginary language is invented here, ambiguous and often funny.
To dialogue with this work and enhance its intrinsic theatricality, we have invited experimental mixed media artist Matthew Talbot-Kelly/A Knobe Dee to collaborate with Dory Hayley’s interpretation of this exuberant and challenging work. Matthew Talbot-Kelly/A Knobe Dee will create a visual performance that is by turns live animated AR loops, live edited digital loops and an installation of physical assemblages.
Written in 1977–8, George Aperghis’ 14 Récitations are among the most challenging masterpieces of contemporary solo vocal writing. The fact that Aperghis originally wrote them for the French comedian and singer Martine Viard offers a clue to their aesthetic. Each Récitation operates in a similar emotional register to a miniature opera, but with a plot that is unknown and a text that at best teeters on the edge of intelligibility (the texts are in French, but cut up into syllables and jumbled, sometimes using homophones borrowed from other languages). Yet their dramatic form – like that of comedy – exists independently of semantic meaning. Like comedy, too, they subvert and demolish stereotypes. Whatever little else we know of her, the woman portrayed in the 14 Récitations is angry, empowered, sexual, violent, scared and glorious. In short, she is – like all of us – messy. – Stephanie Lamprea and Tim Rutherford-Johnson, New Focus Recordings
This event was supported in part by the BC Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund.
Videography: Mingtao Kong
Audio recording: Dan Kibke
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