"At the beginning God created ... the Alps"

(R. Ayres - In the Alps)

 

The desire to create this Alpine Epic and turn it into a pluridisciplinary creative laboratory comes from the discovery of Richard Ayres’ play, In the Alps.

 

« In the Alps » is an « illustrated concert’, an Alpine melodrama suitable for everyone, that begins with the creation of the world (then the Alps) and tells us the story of the passionate love affair between a young girl who has survived a plane accident and Bobli,  a young mute, who expresses his love for her by playing the trumpet from the bottom of the valley.

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Richard Ayres uses all possible musical references, and, with this play, creates a contemporary work that is suitable for everyone. He uses humor to ask questions about differences, as well as the myth of the savage child, the perception of time, art, or nature.

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The play that is written like a tale will be narrated off stage and projected with intertitles, with the help of the scenery, and video illustrations. An actor/dancer will interpret Time.

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This venture will be preceded by four movements of the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss (alternating live music and recordings); this will help develop everything in the Alps that reveals the human, in what is most essential and ridiculous, Man’s frailty and finiteness.

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Between each act, an interlude will analyze the perception of musical Time, with different animals, “how the whale, then the fly and lastly a bacteria perceive music”. Thus, Richard Ayres ironically questions our own perception of music, of art, and above all, perception of Time.

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To create this show, we want to be able to give ourselves this Time for research, a laboratory of sorts: to use and exhaust the Alps to hear everything the Alps tell us about Time and about Man….and then laugh about it.

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Using the stage directions, the drawings, the dancing, and the music, we will illustrate the romantic lyricism in Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and the absurd poetry to be found in Richard Ayres ’In the Alps, to invite the audience, just for this concert, to follow an unexpected adventure and ask themselves questions with a smile.

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Above all, we hope to offer this concert to everyone and give access to the orchestra, to the music and the singing.

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