Ephémère enchainé

Premiered at SPOR festival, May 2015.

The piece Ephemère enchainé by the French composer François Sarhan is a theatre concert, an installation, an opera, a night, a performance, an experience, a story, an Opera Mundi, a story of a life, a life of thousands of people, a combination of music, voice, video, performances, sound design, an overlay and a mix of everything together, a Teatro del Mondo, an attempt to find a unity through the chaos.

The night is divided in chapters where the musicians and the narrator are active. Between these chapters, interludes allows the audience to wake up and take fresh air. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific topic, and illustrated with music, video and scenic action.

The stage is centered in the room of an overwhelming scenography; Paper cuttings hanged in a way that make them seem floating, which make a ‘heimlich/unheimlich’ environment, with common things put in an uncommon context. Some of the materials are cut photocopies; others are transformed by addition of paint or deformation by non-realistic gluing and cutting: The audience is surrounded by loudspeakers and the musicians are loosely spread in the room.

The audience are invited to lie down, sit or stand or move around and experience the sound in space. Each member of the audience are invited to listen, to rest, to watch, to meditate, to eat and drink, and to sleep again, leave the room and come back.

Photos: Samuel Olandersson

Supported by The Danish Conductors Association, Godsbanen – Åbne Scene, The Danish Arts Foundation – Performing arts and Fondation Banque Populaire

In collaboration with Centre national de création musicale and La Muse en Circuit