BARROCO (2007)
Theatre play
Produced by Teatro Fernán Gómez / Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid
Directed by Tomaz Pandur
Opening night: September 12th 2007
More information:
www.madridteatro.net (in Spanish)
www.pandurtheaters.com
(in English)
Silence have often flirted with classical music. Even a cursory glance reveals
a multitude of classical elements strewn throughout their works. Many of the
duet's live performances featured acoustic arrangements of their tracks performed
by classical ensembles. They even wrote a 7' piece for piano and string orchestra
for Laibach's 2006 Volk album, entitled Nippon.
However, it wasn't until 2007 that the duet was given the chance to write
an exclusively orchestral work.
Listen to: Concert For Guillotine And Tired History
In April 2007, the duet was assigned to write the soundtrack for Barroco,
Tomaz Pandur's adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary
novel Les Liaisions Dangereuses and Heiner Müller's adaptation
of the latter, Quartet. The massive production, produced
by Teatro Fernán Gómez / Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid,
provided the ideal opportunity for the implementation of an idea that was
glimmering in Pandur's and Silence's minds since their first collaboration,
the 2006 Tesla Electric Company: gracing a theatre play with an orchestral
soundtrack.
Instead of opting for the obvious and writing Baroque-reminiscent pieces, Silence decided to emphasize the timelessness of malice - the play's subject - by superimposing different genres from different historic periods.
A closer look at the score thus reveals a wide array of references. The latter - including Albinoni, Sarasate, Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Khachaturian, Gorecki, Vangelis, Sakamoto and many others - trace an arch from early 18th century to the present and provide the soundtrack's unclassifiable, all but 'universal' sound. Three months of work were required to complete the score for the 34-piece string orchestra and soloists.
The recording sessions - headed by multiple Goya award winning
sound engineer José Vinader - took place
at the renowned Teatro Real in Madrid between July 16th and
July 18th 2007. Conducted by José Antonio Montaño and performed
by the Orquesta Escuela de la Sinfónica de Madrid, the soundtrack
features three remarkable soloists: Margarita Sikoeva (violin),
Dragos Balan (violoncello) and Riccardo Bini
(piano).
The soundtrack also features three songs (The True Nature Of Happiness,
Guillotine – The Dance Of The Dead and Halfway There, Mostly
Nowhere), performed by actor Asier Etxeandia. The lyrics,
originally written in English, were translated into Spanish.
The soundtrack, "...a tantamount 'protagonist' of the play" according to Delo (Ljubljana) and "beautiful" according to El Confidencial (Madrid), is one of Silence's most ambitious and accomplished works to date.
1. Baroque: Prologue
2. The True Nature Of Happiness
3. Baroque Variations: Equality
4. Baroque Variations: Brotherhood
5. Baroque Variations: Freedom
6. Butoh-Baroque
7. Theatre Of Beasts
8. Guillotine - The Dance Of The Dead
9. Sounds Shameful, As If You Were In Love
10. Concert For Guillotine And Tired History
11. Fetes galantes
12. Religion Of Lust
13. Sublime Symmetry Of Letters
14. Halfway There, Mostly Nowhere
15. Guillotine
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