The Hatred of Music
Lionel Monier Actor
Gilles Burgos Flute
Frank Scalisi Clarinet
Eric du Faÿ French horn
André Feydy Trumpet
Jean-Luc Ayroles Piano
Anne Ricquebourg Harp
Florent Jodelet Percussions
Maud Lovett Violon
Florian Lauridon Violoncelle
Philippe Noharet Contrebasse
Laurent Cuniot Direction
The Hatred of Music inspired by Pascal Quignard’s essay; adapted by Daniel D’Adamo and Christian Gangneron
Music is the most tyrannical of the arts.
The Hatred of Music imposes its vision. It is a tide from which there is no escape.
Music is everywhere. We cannot resist it, or prevent it from worming its way into our ears. “I investigate the links between music and aural suffering,” wrote Pascal Quignard in The Hatred of Music in 1996.
The author goes on to develop a chilling reflection on the violence inherent in this art form that he nevertheless knows so well. So it took a certain audacity to compose around this text. The Franco-Argentine composer Daniel D’Adamo has taken up the challenge with a desperate love song to music.
From a primitive cave to scenes of a modern apocalypse, with an array of lights that play against the near darkness, the composer accompanies the ruminations of an actor who represents Quignard, separated from the musicians on stage by a simple gauze curtain. A diffused but insurmountable threat is posed by the music, which would almost seem to confirm the writers’ paranoid anxieties. The actor, like a shaman captivating his prey, guides the listener on a terrifying but magical submersion into sound.
Coproduction TM+, Musica, Maison de la musique de Nanterre.
With the support of gmem – CNCM – Marseille, de l’Arcal and Théâtre Joliette-Minoterie.
State command.
Photographic credits Guillaume Chauvin, François Guéry and ARR
Video credit Mathieu Bouvier