ARTIO’S LACRIMOSA A DEEPLY MOVING CONCERT
Choir gives fresh new interpretation of grief over 1998 murder of gay student
Mount Royal Conservatory’s experimental choir Artio has presented another excellent concert as Calgary’s premier exponent of collaborative, experimental choral theatre. For its year-end wrap this past Saturday at the Nickle Theatre, they certainly made an important statement, even if it was yet another in a long series of tribute concerts regarding the 1998 Wyoming murder of gay student Matthew Shepard. But this one felt fresh and relevant, and as the program stated, the concert was a kind of confrontation dealing with “how violence, grief, and loss are the sad harbingers of profound and positive change.”
The title of the show, Lacrimosa, a word taken from the Requiem Mass, accurately reflected the deep spiritual significance and ties that bind us with mourning and the collective tears meant to depict collective weeping for victims of any hate crime. Even though there was no actual Requiem text sung, the mood in the Nickel theatre felt very much like the atmosphere of a memorial throughout.
Jean-Louis Bleau’s splendid direction saw the choir give a thoughtful, authentic and genuinely original artistic interpretation of grief that was at once theatrical as a Greek Chorus, collectively representing our lives, as it was moving in its unique appeal and translation into all facets of abundant loss. I found the performance both surprising and moving, making an impact on many artistic levels.
We have all dealt with loss, and sometimes unfair loss through violence or outright neglect. The program tapped into the rawness of that and it worked well. The choral theatre concept presented a definitive way to see, hear and experience choral music. Everything was memorized, pieces were punctuated with collective poetry readings and often with solos, my favourites included Hamlet and especially Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for Death.
Choristers were choreographed by Mark Ikeda, and his “choralography” played to superb effect. Sound was bolstered with music and movement. One could not separate the different sense modalities of the synesthetic effect Artio gave to every performance.
In addition, Alen Chaudhry and Meghann Michalsky, who danced throughout the entire choral sections of the show, were lithe and expressive with a kind of language that may now be called choral dance, a way to articulate text through graceful and often sweeping motion, often complemented with an incisive tension depicting obstinacy and indifference toward those who suffer. The dance/movements by choir members were a perfect companion to the pieces, especially Christi Mutter (Z. Randall Stroope) and Overflowing (Brian Tate). It showed just how brilliant Mark Ikeda is in creating, carrying out and directing such toweringly detailed movement. And that, plus the music, were all memorized. Soon, it will be impossible to avoid doing this in every choir. Bleau is blazing a new trail here.
In addition, Duo Polaris was wonderful in Manuel de Falla’s atmospheric Asturia, a sentimental beauty and, again, in a chilling rendition of Monashee by Allan Gordon Bell.
A splendid highlight was hearing more music by Peter Jancewicz. From the Lightless Night, commissioned for this concert, was a lovely exploration of a static sound field depicting a feeling of nothingness during isolation and loneliness. It was starkly effective, well performed, and a good piece pitched to the age 15+ choir. It also formed the perfect emotional companion piece to a Don MacDonald song that has recently gained a lot of attention for its easy contemporary style, When the Earth Stands Still — yet another convincing performance by Artio.
Especially enjoyable was the jarringly dramatic Armottoman Osa by Finnish composer Mia Markaroff, followed perfectly by the hypnotic classic And So I Go On by Jake Runestad. These works required a degree of choral resilience and sudden gear-shifting in movement and style, performance attributes to show us how we need to do the same through life. The audience quickly obliged with a standing ovation after the uplifting 1000 Beautiful Things by Annie Lennox, and rightly so, for Bleau, Ikeda and Artio gave us at least that much to ponder and remember.