Hashirigaki - Théâtre Vidy Lausanne
Hashirigaki - Théâtre Vidy Lausanne Hashirigaki - Théâtre Vidy Lausanne
Saison 2011-2012HashirigakiDe/ By/ Von Heiner GoebbelsThe Guardian (EN)28.08.2001If the release of the Beach Boys’ 1966album Pet Sounds was one of the seismicevents of your musical youth, andif you think that God Only Knows is stillthe greatest pop song ever written, thenHeiner Goebbels’s new theatre piecewill be 80 minutes of pure, unadulterateddelight.For those without direct access to thatparticular bag of nostalgia, it must stillrepresent a quite remarkable achievement.Hashirigaki is a fusion of extraordinarilydiverse cultural elements - theBeach Boys’ songs, Japanese folk musicand Gertrude Stein’s mammoth novelThe Making of Americans - broughttogether with Goebbels’s characteristicalchemy.The whole thing is presented by threewomen who act, sing, dance and play ina ravishing visual setting that holds theaudience enchanted from the first surrealimage to the last.The piece was brought to Edinburgh forjust two performances by Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, which presented the worldpremiere last year. The Japanese title iselusive - with connotations of running,rushing and writing fluently, it’s the firstword of a famous kabuki drama, andseems to encapsulate the way in whichGoebbels makes his allusive mix cohere.His starting point was not, in fact, PetSounds itself, but a set of CDs thatemerged more recently, detailing thesessions and out-takes that went intothe making of the classic LP.The unearthly singing of the BeachBoys is never heard in Hashirigaki, butthe backing tracks haunt the sculptedsoundscape, in which the theremin, anearly electronic instrument used on PetSounds and then immortalised by thesame band on Good Vibrations, playsan important role.The yearning opening of God OnlyKnows launches a series of Stein’stypically opaque fables, delivered withwonderful deadpan seriousness; Don’tTalk becomes a song-and-dance numberas the women don outrageous wigsand turn themselves into a Ronettesstyletrio; I Just Wasn’t Made For TheseTimes is the essence of the lingering,intensely poetic epilogue.The Japanese folk numbers provide thecool counterweight but, as remarkablekoto player Yumiko Tanaka shows, thatsoundworld can metamorphose intoa fine replica of bluegrass music in aninstance. Cultural boundaries - betweeneast and west, popular culture and highart - are dissolved.Everything becomes part of a uniquedramatic world, in which the array ofarresting gestures and movements -akin to Robert Wilson’s theatre, but withgentle, affectionate wit replacing his tendentiousness- knits everything together.The three performers (Tanaka, Swedishsinger and dancer Charlotte Engelkesand Canadian pianist Marie Goyette)are extraordinary in their versatility andpoise, and have been signed up to bringthe show to London’s Barbican beforetoo long. Book as soon as the dates areannounced, because Hashirigaki is anunclassifiable, unforgettable experience- the stuff that masterpieces are madeof.Andrew Clements
Saison 2011-2012Press reviewHashirigakiDe/ By/ Von Heiner GoebbelsThe Guardian (EN)21.12.2001The year in classical musicPerhaps by now we should have learnedto be grateful for small mercies. Thecollapse that has so frequently beenpredicted for the classical-music worldfailed to materialise for one more yearat least, though the aftershocks of September11 are already having an effecton funding. Even the record industryremained largely intact, though one distinctivelabel, Nimbus, went to the wall,and some of the major companies havebeen streamlining their outputs so thatthere are regular reports of high-calibreperformers finding themselves without arecording contract.That’s not to say, though, that it hasbeen a vintage year for British music.There have been few great changes inthe fortunes of London orchestras; theLSO has continued to produce work ofthe highest calibre with Colin Davis asits chief conductor, and is benefitingfrom having its home at the acousticallyremodelled Barbican, where there is areal sense of enterprise and imaginationabout the artistic planning. The Philharmoniaand the London Philharmonic arestill struggling to preserve their distinctiveprofile on the South Bank, which, inthe year the Festival Hall celebrated its50th anniversary, seems more bereft ofcreative ideas and guiding managementthan at any time in its existence.It has been a good year for the regionalorchestras: the Bournemouth Symphonyhas found itself a sensible newchief conductor in Marin Alsop, the Cityof Birmingham Symphony and SakariOramo are at last settling into a fruitfulpartnership, and now have Julian Andersonas composer-in-association, whileafter only a few months the Hallé in Manchesteris starting to reap the benefits ofhaving secured Mark Elder as its musicdirector.Not much excitement in opera, either.While the Royal Opera seems to bemarking time until the arrival of AntonioPappano next autumn, it came up withtwo classy new productions: NikolausLehnoff’s staging of Hennze’s BoulevardSolitude, and David McVicar’s Rigoletto,as well as a Parsifal - conducted by SimonRattle, who this summer finally signedhis contract at the Berlin Philharmonic- that was by all accounts first ratemusically but uninspired dramatically.But the visit of the Kirov Opera to CoventGarden for a Verdi season in July was adisappointment, musically indifferentand theatrically more or less inept.English National Opera had a mixedyear, with new shows ranging fromthe abject (a Marriage of Figaro thatshould have been aborted in rehearsals)through the controversial (CalixtoBieto’s staging of Don Giovanni, whichoutraged many but was full of fresh and- literally - penetrating ideas) to the firstrate (McVicar’s Rape of Lucretia and TimAlbery’s staging of Prokofiev’s War andPeace, a white elephant of a piece thatnevertheless showed the company at itsbest). ENO was also the one major operacompany to manage a premiere in 2001- David Sawer’s From Morning to Midnight,which in the event was somethingof a disappointment from such a promisingcomposer.It was a less than remarkable year fornew music: Aldeburgh presented theBritish premiere of Alexander Goehr’soperatic double bill, Kantan and DamaskDrum, but did it no service by clothingit in a production of utter fatuousness.Goehr was also one of the composersfavoured with a Proms commission,which were generally unremarkable;out of the 20-odd new works it is hardto identify one that is likely to be heardoften again.So the indelible memories to take awayfrom the year are relatively few - justthree, in fact. Krystian Zimerman’sBrahms and Beethoven piano recital atthe Festival Hall in June was final proof, ifit were still needed, that Zimerman meritsa place among the greatest pianists ofall time. The arrival of the Chicago SymphonyOrchestra and Daniel Barenboimat the end of the Proms for two concertsfinally galvanised what had been an underwhelmingseason with playing of thehighest class. Best of all for me, though,was Heiner Goebbels’s latest theatrepiece, Hashirigaki, a highlight of an Edinburghfestival otherwise full of operas inconcert performance; Goebbels bringstogether Gertrude Stein and the BeachBoys in a magical synthesis that, like allthe greatest art, is utterly unclassifiable.Andrew Clements
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Saison 2011-2012<strong>Hashirigaki</strong>De/ By/ Von Heiner GoebbelsThe Guardian (EN)28.08.2001If the release of the Beach Boys’ 1966album Pet Sounds was one of the seismicevents of your musical youth, andif you think that God Only Knows is stillthe greatest pop song ever written, thenHeiner Goebbels’s new theatre piecewill be 80 minutes of pure, unadulterateddelight.For those without direct access to thatparticular bag of nostalgia, it must stillrepresent a quite remarkable achievement.<strong>Hashirigaki</strong> is a fusion of extraordinarilydiverse cultural elements - theBeach Boys’ songs, Japanese folk musicand Gertrude Stein’s mammoth novelThe Making of Americans - broughttogether with Goebbels’s characteristicalchemy.The whole thing is presented by threewomen who act, sing, dance and play ina ravishing visual setting that holds theaudience enchanted from the first surrealimage to the last.The piece was brought to Edinburgh forjust two performances by Théâtre <strong>Vidy</strong>-<strong>Lausanne</strong>, which presented the worldpremiere last year. The Japanese title iselusive - with connotations of running,rushing and writing fluently, it’s the firstword of a famous kabuki drama, andseems to encapsulate the way in whichGoebbels makes his allusive mix cohere.His starting point was not, in fact, PetSounds itself, but a set of CDs thatemerged more recently, detailing thesessions and out-takes that went intothe making of the classic LP.The unearthly singing of the BeachBoys is never heard in <strong>Hashirigaki</strong>, butthe backing tracks haunt the sculptedsoundscape, in which the theremin, anearly electronic instrument used on PetSounds and then immortalised by thesame band on Good Vibrations, playsan important role.The yearning opening of God OnlyKnows launches a series of Stein’stypically opaque fables, delivered withwonderful deadpan seriousness; Don’tTalk becomes a song-and-dance numberas the women don outrageous wigsand turn themselves into a Ronettesstyletrio; I Just Wasn’t Made For TheseTimes is the essence of the lingering,intensely poetic epilogue.The Japanese folk numbers provide thecool counterweight but, as remarkablekoto player Yumiko Tanaka shows, thatsoundworld can metamorphose intoa fine replica of bluegrass music in aninstance. Cultural boundaries - betweeneast and west, popular culture and highart - are dissolved.Everything becomes part of a uniquedramatic world, in which the array ofarresting gestures and movements -akin to Robert Wilson’s theatre, but withgentle, affectionate wit replacing his tendentiousness- knits everything together.The three performers (Tanaka, Swedishsinger and dancer Charlotte Engelkesand Canadian pianist Marie Goyette)are extraordinary in their versatility andpoise, and have been signed up to bringthe show to London’s Barbican beforetoo long. Book as soon as the dates areannounced, because <strong>Hashirigaki</strong> is anunclassifiable, unforgettable experience- the stuff that masterpieces are madeof.Andrew Clements
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