Invisible cities

Invisible Cities is a celebration of literature and music, an anthology of works that weave a story and throw open windows into other worlds. The program is framed by two pieces by Claude Vivier, a composer often in search of another (better?) world. Pulau Dewata is a mystical retelling of Vivier’s travels that transports us to Indonesia’s “Island of the Gods”. Charlotte Bray’s piece, Invisible Cities, named after Italo Calvino’s novel, is a musical reflection on the urban utopia that explores the shifting forms of imaginary metropolises. Numbers 91-95 by Philip Venables sets to music Simon Howard’s evocative poems in which fragments of images and actions merge to create a parallel reality, echoing out of tape players. In Retrouvailles, Georges Aperghis invites us to a unique reunion between two individuals which gradually glides toward another world, their utterances made up of invented words. Arthur Lavandier takes us to the imaginary realm of Onèirodie I, in which voice and cello fuse different literary themes to create an inimitable sensory experience. Continuing this sonic quest, Thierry Tidrow’s new piece Les Spectres de l’Utopie, commissioned by lovemusic, explores contemporary utopia, woven into the social fabric with subtle irony. The evening concludes with Claude Vivier’s haunting work Hymnen an die Nacht. Based on a poem by Novalis, it presents the night as a conduit to an ideal world, imbued with mysticism and poetic visions.