« Terre, air, feu : Acte IV »

Opera Earth, Air, Fire: Act IV

As part of La Métropolitaine, rendez-vous international d’art contemporain de la Métropole du Grand Paris, co-written with TRAM réseau art contemporain Paris/Île-de-France, Maxime Rossi imagines and stages an original performance exploring notions of probability, through the combination of improvised stochastic music and a Boccia (Paralympic sport) match. On this occasion, he invites composer Bastien David and his company Les Insectes, Boccia players and French champions Mathilde Troude and Mathias Da Silva, and lyric singer Marie-Claude Bottius.

“On a quasi-mathematical, open and collaborative score, athletes become musicians and competition becomes concert.” Vittoria Matarrese

The two athletes will use phosphorescent balls to create moving sounds. These balls, sensitive to movement and waves, will trigger pulses modulating a magnetic field. Boccia, a sport of Greco-Roman origin and a Paralympic discipline since 1984, aims to place its balls as close as possible to the jack to accumulate points. Precision and strategy are essential, as players can block opposing balls, move the jack to advantage their own balls, or remove opposing balls close to the jack.

The six percussion musicians from the Les Insectes company will play on a sculptural metallophone measuring 15 meters in circumference with 216 steel blades. Microtonally tuned, it produces organic, hypnotic sounds. Its distinctive feature is its unique concert configuration, where percussionists play simultaneously on the same instrument, creating a collective sound world, sculpted using mallets, bows or other accessories. Here, the musicians’ gestures will become choreographed movements, sometimes virtuosic, sometimes imperceptible.

Lyric singer Marie-Claude Bottius will be the megaphone for vocal moments inaudible to the audience, such as the Boccia players’ preparation and rest times.

WITH:
Bastien David, a composer with a passion for new sounds, created the Métallophone circulaire, an innovative percussion instrument. The project was born during a trip to Mandalay, Myanmar, where he collaborated with piano maker Ko Aung Moe to make and tune 216 hammered steel blades. The lacquered wooden resonance boxes were finalized in France and Italy, at Villa Medici.

To explore this new world of sound, Bastien David founded the company “Les Insectes” with Arthur Bechet, Adélaïde Ferrière, Aurélien Gignoux, Elisa Humanes, Maxime Echardour, Catherine Lenert, Morgan Laplace Mermoud, Lou Renaud Bailly and François Vallet.

Mathilde Troude and Mathias Da Silva are French Boccia champions. They are accompanied by Mélissa Gaëckler and Iliès Johns. The match will be refereed by Nolwenn Leroux.

The Insects and the Boccia players will be accompanied by Marie-Claude Bottius, lyric singer, and Matthieu Gasnier, sound engineer.