Meet me in Saint Louis [experiencing Goebbels] (2012)

This paper investigates the complex interaction of music and theatre and their perception focusing in particular on the dissolution of clearly definable borders between these art forms and their media using Heiner Goebbels’ experimental music-theatre production Eraritjaritjaka (2004) as a case study. The methodological considerations that precede the analysis are based on notions of intermediality and extend the idea of an intermedial relation that “consists in one medium representing another” (Schröter) into three types of relations, which I label metaphorically “Suchbild” (picture puzzle), “Kippfigur” (reversing ambiguous figures) and the “Schwellenphänomen” (liminal phenomenon). In my argument these notions are used to classify and distinguish different forms of cohesion or fusion between music and the theatrical in relation to process and performance. Goebbels’ production consciously challenges and blurs boundaries of clearly distinguishable media, distinguishable genres and distinguishable performance modes. It also questions fixed dispositions of production process and perception and draws its particular appeal and complexity from this ridge walk.

Creating for the Stage and Other Spaces: Questioning Practices and Theories, 2021

The article focusses on the concept of music performativity in reference to works of three European composers and theatre directors: Georges Aperghis, Niels Rønsholdt and Wojtek Blecharz. All are representatives of ‘the new music theatre’ which can be defined by the negation of traditional opera and musical (Salzman, Desi, 2008). In opposition to the constant and unchanging hierarchy of devices presented in traditional opera, the new model of music performance is based on questioning established patterns and perpetual testing of new solutions in the field of shaping the relationship between music and other spheres of performance. The composing and staging strategies of Georges Aperghis, Niels Rønsholdt and Wojtek Blecharz consistently develop the concept of music performativity which evokes the idea of Fluxus „visual music” – music which is not only „to be heard” but also „to be seen”. Aperghis creates a type of automated theatre, where electronic devices cooperate with actors and their voices, creating a new model of „musical assemblage”. Niels Rønsholdt specialises in chamber operas and music installations in which viewers are meant to be active participants, not only observers. Theatrical projects of Wojtek Blecharz explore the relationship between body and sound in a wide and multi-level way, paying attention to the audience’s experience. The main purpose of the article is to show the process of sound autonomisation as well as to present various models of music performativity in contemporary European theatre. Simultaneously, the author intends to retrace the aesthetic influences, affinities and oppositions between these three examples of experimental music theatre.

Honours year research paper, supervised by Amy Jephta.

Welcome to the United States! I extend the greeting in the fashion that Frank Zappa does in his piece with the Ensemble Modern, but with the present moment in mind. I wanted to ask the art-in-relation-to-politics question last, and I feel I have to ask it at the outset because the historical occasion demands it. So, I would like you to consider the problem that one's art can never entirely control the context of its performance. The New York performance of your piece Hashirigaki happens to coincide with the initiation of the bombing campaign in Iraq. If nothing else, this is what the audience brings to the theatre; its thought and affect is weighed down by this occasion, whether acknowledged or not.

Leuven University Press, 2015

The theatrical past reactivated by scholars and artists Despite eye-opening discoveries, exhibitions, and performances, many valuable artefacts and documents of the performing arts continue to linger in oblivion. How do these sources affect our understanding and appreciation of the theatrical past? Which challenges and opportunities arise from their reuse in modern contexts, museal and non-museal? Theatrical Heritage addresses these and related issues from a broad perspective. In accessible essays written by theatre and music scholars, performers, directors, conservators, and administrators from Europe and the USA, new methods are advanced to reactivate the theatrical past. Contributors Michael Burden (Oxford University / New College), Margaret Butler (University of Florida), Thomas Crombez (Royal Academy of Fine Arts / Saint Luke’s College, Antwerp), Timothy De Paepe (University of Antwerp), Maarten De Pourcq (Radboud University, Nijmegen), Christine Fischer (Kunst Universität Graz / Swiss ForumMusikDiversität), Raphaèle Fleury (Institut International de la Marionnette), Bruno Forment (Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Ghent University), Nick Hunt (Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance), Riemer Knoop (Reinwardt Academy), Jerome Maeckelbergh (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp), Frank Peeters (University of Antwerp), John A. Rice (freelance writer and teacher), Christel Stalpaert (Ghent University), Staf Vos (Het Firmament), Jed Wentz (Leiden University)