A new, but essential experience: allowing the deaf and hard of hearing to feel the music. Supervising the percussion, well above the 300 choristers, two professional “chansigners” translate everything, singing, dialogues, rhythm. Carlos Carreras does not save his gestures: “It is above all the alternation of rhythms, between the sometimes very slow choirs, dialogues which follow one another, very, very fast and moreover, it is in German.” Like the voice, sign language allows all modulations: “Inevitably, when we are going to hear a voice that is pushed, we too will push our tongue and the only way to push it is to pull our limbs, to stretch“, he explains.
From below, Emmanuelle Laborit watches and advises:We focus a little less on the sound, on the ear. It brings an opening, finally, a visual opening, it’s really an image, in fact. Another interpretation, she describes, through the voice of her interpreter Julie.
Tonight at the@philharmonieof Paris, “La Decision” by Brecht and Eisler, the first opera entirely rewritten, in particular in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Sequenza 9.3 and@TheatreIVT pic.twitter.com/eLjIE1MKKn
— Yann Bertrand (@YannBertrand) May 4, 2022
It’s with Emmanuelle Laboritactress rrewarded with the Molière of the theatrical revelation in The Children of Silence in 1993 and today director of the IVT, the International Visual Theatre, that the Philharmonie de Paris launched this “chansigne” project around Decision, participatory play by Bertolt Brecht. “It’s quite amusing to see him, like for us, in a play that is an almost political learning play, rejoices the director Olivier Fredj. For me, it immediately reminded me of the great televised speeches and their translation into sign language. I think we have the opportunity for a more open sharing of experiences.“
And precisely, more and more concerts, especially at the American Coachella festival recently, are now “changed” live. “It’s not a simple translation, it’s an artistic practice in itself“, thus defends Audrey Ouaki, Head of Accessibility at the Philharmonie, which has already set up a dedicated route for the exhibition Hip Hop 360, Glory to street art.
But for opera, it’s still another matter. “It forces you to have an extremely respectful tempo. We had to record the whole opera beforehand so that the signed songs could be ‘choreographed’ in the rhythm of the piece. And these are two worlds that meet tonight,” assures Catherine Simonpietri, the conductor, artistic director of the vocal ensemble Sequenza 9.3. And as a symbol, choristers and actors will end up together by interpreting ten measures in “chansigné”: the same world of music and emotions.