“Notte, che nel profondo oscuro seno, chiudesti e nell'oblio fatto sì grande, degne d'un chiaro sol, degne d'un pieno teatro, opre sarian sì memorande. Piacciati ch'indi il tragga e'n bel sereno, a le future età lo spieghi e mande. Viva la fama lor, e tra lor gloria splenda dal fosco tuo l'alta memoria.”

“Night, you who have allowed so great a feat to fade into obscurity in the depths of your dark breast, such memorable deeds deserve to have bright sunlight shone upon them, and to be retold in very crowded theatres. Allow me therefore to illumine them, and to pass this tale on to future generations. May their renown live long; and may the noble memory of their glory shine forth from your darkness.” -from Combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda; Claudio Monteverdi , 1638, libretto by Torquato Tasso

Yet we can extract music out of bones and ochre out of earth. This generation and every generation yet to come - subversively erotic, mysteriously prophetic, tantalizingly undefined - refuses to fade from view- before the apocalypse occurs , before everything is lost in nothingness, I suggest, all gestures must pass, from self to world, from flesh to love, from song to song. From song to Toni to Alice to Clement to Els to Hanako to Khaled to Lucie to Victor to Jesse to Wouter to Madoka to Pieter to Rebecca to wold to song to song by Louise Van den Eede, Dramaturg                                

On love and war

"Queerness is performative because it is not simply a being but  a doing for and toward the future. Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here  and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world.” - drawn from Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz

“People try to be untouchable, but I feel for Madrigals it’s about being touchable actually”- Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, Director

“Love is all this event of bubbles. and cave is pot, and cult is cooking rice but actually making bubble and the song is me, the bubble” Hanako Hayakawa, performer

“ Love doesn't seem like a choice, but it is. One that forms in the womb. “ Lucie Plasschaert, performer

“I wonder about the origins of love, of cults, of arts. Maybe one of the reasons why we created arts and religion is to get closer from an ultimate state of love. A never ending quest.” Clément Corrilon, performer

“ I hear self-made beliefs.Vibrations, echoes and escape.”- Victor Dumont, performer

“ It's a precious space where feelings and fears can appear without being dangerous, or too much dangerous, the time of cave is a suspended time, like the one of song: a song is for eternity, a song can stop your "regular" perception, songs can't escape love. Songs protected us “ Alice Guiliani, performer

“I like to imagine his bloody animality alternating between singing, eating and love. Love of pre-human beings living and dying while the consciousness of being themselves gradually awoke.” Antonio Fajardo, performer

 It's just like this music that I’ve never heard before. This music that I only could associate with like Tom and Jerry or like cartoons. The first time I came to Europe to go to a dance audition the maestro in the ballet class was playing a piece from Mozart, so I started laughing and then the ballet teacher came and he was like: " you know like is it enough you are already dressed up like shit, no tights, no ballet shoes, you know, like what are you laughing at, you know, like discipline". And then I told him this is music from Tom and Jerry.  It's very funny. He looked at me and he was like yeah this is Mozart So I mean I had so much in connection with this music but I didn't know anything.  The first time I saw a piano was when I came to the dance school in Europe and I was twenty years old.  The first time I saw a concert, the first time I saw people playing instruments, this all happened here in the dance school.”  Khaled Barghouthi, performer

“Gathering together, safe, time for reflection in drawings, stories, songs, movements.And fire... Love... Need for connections, losing yourself, ecstasy, warmth, disappearing, trust, safety, letting go shame, experiencing the body, instinct... Al the things where cult could be afraid of... Or what could be celebrated...Song... Haha... It is the same as love for me…Is this a bit what you wanted to hear from me?” Els Mondelaers, performer

SYNOPSIS

NL: MADRIGALS is een muziekvoorstelling die zich beweegt rond de middelpuntzoekende kracht van het nulpunt. Het nulpunt is oers, het is het vuur waarrond de eerste mensen verzamelden. Het kosmische zwarte gat waarin tijd en ruimte verdwijnen omdat ze onmeetbaar zijn geworden. Het is een groep performers en de naaktheden van hun lichamen. Het is opgaan in elkaar. Het moment van extase wanneer de stemmen van niet-geschoolde zangers en geschoolde zangers niet meer te onderscheiden zijn. De uiterste seconde waarop alles gebeurt. Wanneer de verschillen worden opgeheven, het orgasme, de zelfoverstijging. Het heeft de vorm van een mond die open gaat. Het is terug naar de bron, tegen de stroom in. Het is de ondoorgrondelijkheid van de performers en de terugkeer naar hun eerste zelf. Het nulpunt is de samensmelting van klassieke muziek en hedendaagse muziek tot de heartbeat van een nieuwe wereld. Het is de vingerknip van een veelzijdige scenografie naar totale leegte op het podium. In MADRIGALS zullen 8 performers en 3 muzikanten herwerkte liederen brengen uit Claudio Monteverdi ’s Madrigalen Boek VIII: Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (liederen over oorlog en liefde) in een geënsceneerd ritueel, een oeroude grot waarin verschillende symbolen en hedendaagse kunstwerken onze tijd reflecteren en met behulp daarvan een van normativiteit verloste toekomst, een utopie laten zien. We deconstrueren de fundamenten van westerse opera en voegen nieuwe hedendaagse steunpilaren toe. Een architecturaal feest zeg maar. De diverse performers zullen opstaan als krijgers van hun eigen vrijgevochten idealen rondom seksualiteit en vormen een tegen-koor, dat wil zeggen een koor dat niet langer met de wind mee zingt. Zoals de titel van het Monteverdi lied Ogni amanate e’ guerrier zegt: “Every lover is a warrior!”

ENG: MADRIGALS is a musical performance that moves around the centripetal force of zero point. The zero point is primal, it is the fire around which the first humans gathered. The cosmic black hole in which time and space disappear because they have become immeasurable. It is a group of performers and the nakedness of their bodies. It is merging into each other. The moment of ecstasy when the voices of unskilled singers and skilled singers are indistinguishable. The extreme second when everything happens. When the differences are dissolved, the self-transcendence. It takes the form of a mouth opening. It is going back to the source, against the current wind. It is the inscrutability of the performers and the return to their first selves. Zero point is the fusion of classical music and contemporary music into the heartbeat of a new world. It is the finger snap of multifaceted scenography to total emptiness on stage. In MADRIGALS, 8 performers and 3 musicians will perform reworked songs from Claudio Monteverdi 's Madrigals Book VIII: Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (songs about war and love) in a staged ritual, an ancient cave in which different symbols and contemporary artworks reflect our times and with the help of them show a future freed from normativity, a utopia. We deconstruct the foundations of western opera and add new contemporary pillars. An architectural feast so to speak. The various performers will stand up as warriors of their own free-spirited ideals around sexuality and form a counter-choir, that is, a choir that no longer sings with the wind. As the title of the Monteverdi song Ogni amanate e' guerrier says, "Every lover is a warrior!"