Merg

modern dance and early music

Première: 27 February 2007, Stadsschouwburg Utrecht, The Netherlands.

In Merg contemporary dance and early music are blended into an improbable whole. The innovative urge that characterised music at the beginning of the 17th century is followed in spirit by Merg. Composers such as Monteverdi and Luzzaschi placed the structure of their music at the service of the intensity of emotion they wanted to express. Merg follows this working method by linking the visual individuality of contemporary dance to the emotion expressed in the music of the Early Baroque. In the earliest forms of ‘opéra-ballet’, the dancing functioned as an illustration and divertissement, but in Merg the dancing is just as essential as the music.

A passion for Italian Early Baroque music inspired Leine & Roebana to create a performance about love: Merg. the singers as bodies on stage will enter the realm of dance as much as the dancers will relate to the text and emotion of the music. Thus past and present, singing and dancing will be moulded into a natural whole.

Leine & Roebana have worked in this way with opera before, in Les Indes Galantes by Jean-Philippe Rameau, performed by the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, conducted by Frans Brüggen.

An international cast, including awarded dancers Tim Persent and Ederson Rodrigues Xavier, and internationally acclaimed singers Claron McFadden, Nicola Wemyss and Helena Rasker, known for their collaboration with William Christie, Frans Brüggen or the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, will perform madrigals and cantates for one to three voices by Monteverdi, Luzzaschi, Strozzi, Landi, d'India and Luigi Rossi.

The press about Les Indes Galantes (2004): “Leine & Roebana... subtly interweave their contemporary dance with the arias and recitatives. It is remarkable how much the music reinforces the sensuality of their idiom, and vice versa.” (Volkskrant)

choreography: Andrea Leine and Harijono Roebana

musicians: Claron McFadden (soprano), Nicola Wemyss (soprano), Helena Rasker (alt)

The Locke Consort with Siebe Henstra

dance: Tim Persent, Ederson Rodrigues Xavier, Heather Ware, Alba Barral Fernandez and Marlene Wolfsberger

compositions: Monteverdi, Luzzaschi a.o.

photo: Diana Blok