"Kagami" by Ryuichi Sakamoto - directed by Todd Eckert Tin Drum / Photo and Video © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
KAGAMI
DIRECTED BY TODD ECKERT
NEW YORK
MANCHESTER
SYDNEY
TAIPEI
LONDON
Following its immense success in New York at the SHED, and at the MIF Manchester International Festival, in 2023, KAGAMI finally comes to London to the Roundhouse with a unique, mixed-reality performance of late Japanese musician, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, directed by Todd Eckert of Tin Drum, New York.
Eckert always knows how to surprise us. He used a unique process of 48 cameras to capture a solo piano performance traversing Sakamoto’s decades-long career. The recording took over three days, and created a horrendous amount of data that needed five months to process.
Eckert introduced a technology that has never seen before, mixing Sakamoto’s dimensional virtual performance with the real world by using cinematographic MR mixed-reality, a view of the real/physical world with an overlay of digital elements, where physical and digital sequences interacted.
Sakamoto had unstoppable energy, and an enormous heart. He died in March 2023, at the age of 71.
A must-see production.
Full article will be published shortly.
“Kagami” by Ryuichi Sakamoto / Roundhouse, London (UK)
29 December 2023 - 21 January 2024
“Kagami” by Ryuichi Sakamoto / The Shad, New York (USA)
7 June - 2 July 2023
/ The Instigator
KAGAMI / SAKAMOTO
MADONNA
CELEBRATION TOUR 2024
RIO DE JANEIRO
There is only one word to say: Madonna, and the biggest crowd ever, with over 1.5 million people on Rio's Copacabana Beach.
Enjoy the video from last night / full concert.
(link has changed, we put the Madison Sq Garden's concert up)
“Celebration Tour” Madonna / Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
5 May 2024
/ The Instigator
Barbara Hannigan conducts / Photo © Courtesy of Musacchio & Ianniello
BARBARA
HANNIGAN
CONDUCTS
BACH
HAYDN
CLAUDE VIVIER
ALBAN BERG
BARBICAN
LONDON
"Who says women can’t be conductors? Well, men." says Barbara Hannigan.
Much acclaimed soprano Barbara Hannigan with unparalleled dramatic sensibility rolled up her sleeves, and picked up the baton.
She was barely 10, when she decided to be a musician but conducting wasn’t even considered. She spent years focusing on contemporary classical music, working with composers, and exploring the works of the 20th century.
Since, Hannigan became one of the most celebrated musicians in the world. Her concerts are constantly a sold out, and her performances are breathtaking, whether she wears high heels, evening gowns, gym sportswear or a punk outfit on stage. In any circumstances, she is comfortable in her skin and she is an enormously powerful woman.
“Being a soprano is, of course, a women-only field. With conducting I was expanding into a field dominated by men. I didn’t even know what sexism meant at the beginning but as time went by, I realised that “female” was now attached to the “conductor” label where it had never been attached to the singer label.”
Barbara Hannigan
Hannigan gave two concerts in March at the Barbican with LSO, the London Symphony Orchestra, reflecting her outstanding artistry as a curator, as well as a conductor, bringing together pieces spanning for four centuries from Bach and Haydn to 20th century with Claude Vivier and a violin concerto by Alben Berg. The latter was performed by violinist, virtuoso Veronika Eberle, and Vivier’s “Loney Child” by Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou.
For the second concert in March, Hannigan returned to conduct in Gustav Mahler’s "Fourth Symphony".
Two exquisite evenings, two incredible concerts. If you missed any of them, you may watch the concerts on Marquee TV as they were recorded for future broadcast.
"Bach, Haydn, Berg" Barbara Hannigan / Barbican, London (UK)
March 2023 / September 2023
/ The Instigator
"7 Deaths of Maria Callas" Marina Abramovic Willem Dafoe Sophie Bevan - ENO The London Coliseum / Photo © Courtesy of Tristram Kenton
MARINA
ABRAMOVIĆ
7 DEATH OF MARIAS CALLAS
ENO THE LONDON COLISEUM
LONDON
Following the great success of “7 Death of Maria Callas” installation at Lisson Gallery London, in 202, contemporary artist Marina Abramovic, during CALLAS100 payed tribute to the Italian Diva, and staged her seven opera pieces at The London Coliseum ENO.
Abramović in bed on stage, eyes shut. She is Callas, dreaming in her deathbed of celebrated operas’ deaths-scenes.
For each scene, an aria is performed by seven opera singers. The background, a full-size giant video projections - mostly slow-motion and all exquisitely shot for the performance – show an imagined scene starring Abramović as Callas, with murderous cameos by Willem Dafoe. The performance has visually everything one would expect from a contemporary opera scene,
This unique production recreates seven of Maria Callas’s most powerful soprano arias from works by Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Puccini and Verdi. The show ends in a Paris hotel room, where Callas died in 1977, with herself singing Casta Diva to which Abramović acts with a voiceover.
Full article will be published shortly.
“7 Deaths of Maria Callas” by Marina Abramovic / Coliseum, ENO English National Opera, London (UK)
3- 11 November 2023
/ The Instigator
7
DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS /
In a small street of Pigalle, Madame Arthur, a renowned cabaret from the late 40s, rolls out the red carpet for actor, cabaret singer Romain Brau.
As always, he has full control on his audience, and a master proficiency with his performance. Brau is liberating, and he is a breath of fresh air. He sings, interacts with his audience, and there is no escape from his charm, killing humour, and fabulous madness.
Here is a glimpse of his flamboyant aura at Madame Arthur. How dull Paris would be without him?
Read full article below.
Romain Brau, Madame Arthur / Paris (France)
26 January - 27 April 2024
/ The Instigator
ROMAIN
BRAU
MADAME ARTHUR
PARIS
Romain Brau on stage at Madame Arthur / Photo © Courtesy of Zoltan Alexander
"Stabat Mater" Vivaldi by Jakub Jozef Orlinski / Video © Courtesy of Warner Classics & Erato
JAKUB
JÓZEF
ORLIŃSKI
6 MINUTES OF EMPATHY
VIVALDI
STABAT MATER
A short movie was sent to us of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, performed by countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński who also played the lead role in the film, directed by Sebastian Pańczyk.
“The common denominator of the music and story presented in the film is empathy,” Pańczyk explains. “The story is an attempt to reinterpret the symbolic Stabat Mater figure and contemplate empathy in this atypical form and experimental feature narrative.”
The lead character, after experiencing a tragedy, falls into lethargy. The story talks about the path of empathy and forgiveness. The video has a very illustrative structure, there are no dialogues or text. It is all about energy than the performance.
"Already, during my studies, my teacher Anna Radziejewska gave me fragments of Vivaldi's Stabat Mater to sing. Then I had the opportunity to play them with various orchestras, with the piano alone. I performed them many times over the course of 10 years," recalls Orliński. "With each performance, a new idea arises, a new thought that results from our lives and what is happening in the world. I filter the music through them, then the interpretation is created."
From the 11th to the 16th century, Stabat Mater was sung during the holy mass. It was also developed by Renaissance composers such as Josquin dés Prés, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Baroque composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, and later by Joseph Haydn and Antoni Dvořák.
In addition to Orliński’s performance, the film features Capella Cracoviensis, Michalina Olszańska, Marek Dyjak, Jacek Beler and Kinga Jasik.
“Stabat Mater” Vivaldi by Jakub Józef Orliński
© Released by Warner Classics & Erato 2022
/ The Instigator
At the Royal Albert Hall, as part of BBC Proms series, a unique concert was staged of Stevie Wonder’s 50th anniversary of “Innervisions” with Grammy Award-winning composer, conductor Jules Buckley, and his full-scale symphony Orchestra, with singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Cory Henry.
Buckley has already collaborated with the biggest names of the music industry, spanning over 70 albums. He formed his orchestra last year at BBC Proms, for Aretha Franklin Tribute, and currently he is Creative Artist in association with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Previous tributes to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin were also masterminded by him.
The concert at the Royal Albert Hall outdid all expectations. The impact of Stevie Wonder’s 1973 hit album “Innervisions” was a landmark in Wonder’s classic period recording, a transition from romantic ballads into a more musically mature conscious rhythm, that felt still very current to this day.
“Innervisions” is entirely Wonder’s masterpiece, performed most of the instruments on the album himself. Cory Henry’s guest singers on-stage included the brilliant Vula’s gospel Chorale, with Vula Malinga who was previously the Music Director for Quincy Jones orchestral project, Lianne La Havas, Laura Mvula and Grammy nominated singer, songwriter Sheléa Melody Mcdonald, who only a few weeks back gave a breathtaking performance at Quincy Jones 90th Birthday Tribute in Hollywood.
Full article will be published shortly.
Stevie Wonder’s “Innervision” with Cory Henry and the Jules Buckley Orchestra / Royal Albert Hall, London (UK)
21 August 2023
/ The Instigator
STEVIE WONDER
INNERVISIONS
CORY HENRY
JULES BUCKLEY ORCHESTRA
BBC PROMS Nº48
ROYAL ALBERT HALL
LONDON
"Innervisions" of Stevie Wonder with Cory Henry and the Jules Buckley Orchestra / Photo © Courtesy of Cory Henry
Ryuichi Sakamoto portrait / Photo © Courtesy of Andrea Ruffin
LISTEN
"Bibo No Aozora" by Ryuichi Sakamoto (1996) / Video © Courtesy of KAB America
RYUICHI
SAKAMOTO
ARS LONGA
VITA BREVIS
TOKYO
Leaving this space empty would have been just as respectful and appropriate. A genius does not need adjectives.
For those, who are maybe not so familiar with his work, Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who created the original scores for Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," “The Sheltering Sky,” “Little Buddha,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "The Revenant," and collaborated with musicians including David Bowie, David Sylvian, and David Byrne.
He was also known as a member of the electronic, techno-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra with Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono. They became trailblazers of the electronic music genre. The statement from his record label Commmons notes: “Sakamoto-san continued to create music in his home studio whenever his health would allow it. He lived with music until the very end."
"The Last Emperor" swept the Oscars in 1988, winning in every category including Best Original Score, for which Sakamoto was nominated alongside collaborators David Byrne and Cong Su. "The Revenant" starring Leonardo DiCaprio also led the pack at the 2016 Academy Awards, nominated in twelve categories and winning three.
"Art is not a static part of culture, but flexible, changing, and interpretative. True creativity is making something entirely new. Something revolutionary and something destructive," His favourite sayings was "Ars longa, vita brevis / Art is long, life is short."
His music was incredible, experimental, and revolutionary. The tapestry was so cool, some didn't understand who did what, but this was the plan. To blend the sounds of nature and the complexity of nature with no way to understand what is what. The complexity of that tapestry in concert is not accidental. Sakamoto composed scores for more than 40 films in total. He was an actor, singer, producer, writer and antinuclear activist.
"I honestly don't know how many years I have left," the musician said recently. "It could be 20 years, 10, or a relapse reduces it to just one. I'm not taking anything for granted. But I know that I want to make more music. Music that I won't be ashamed to leave behind — meaningful work." Ryuichi Sakamoto
What a beautiful man, what a beautiful person.
Sensei, thank you.
"Ars longa, Vita Brevis" Ryuichi Sakamoto / Tokyo (Japan)
Died at the age of 71, March 2023
/ Zoltan Alexander
"Casablanca" by Xander Pratt / Photo - Video © Courtesy of Xander Pratt
XANDER
PRATT
CASABLANCA
In collaboration with the Moroccan agency In One Entertainment, artist, singer Xander Pratt recently launched his new single Casablanca, and his fashion collection, Majestic Kingdom.
After exhibiting his work in his native country Ghana, he settled in Morocco in 2020, collaborated with 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Marrakesh, and later moved to Casablanca.
Pratt was inspired by the whirlwind of the city, its heritage, energy and colours to offer a sound that takes us throughout a journey, through our moments of celebration. He drew his inspiration from his fascination with time, architecture, alternative cultures, modernity, psychology, and magic, and transformed his ideas into reality.
For his video Casablanca his choice naturally fell on the church Sacré-Cœur since it symbolises the secular tolerance of Morocco. We dive into the city by special effects, and in the foreground, the famous Cadillac appears which, many times, transported the late Mohammed V during his official tours.
"Casablanca" Xander Pratt / Casablanca (Morocco)
2023
/ The Instigator
GABRIELLE
APLIN
RICHARD QUINN SHOW
LONDON
English singer-songwriter, the fabulous Gabrielle Aplin was invited by designer Richard Quinn to lend her voice to Quinn's stunning Fall Winter 2023/2024 show during London Fashion Week.
In a full-length jet-beaded dress, she played her songs alongside some Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, and Kate Bush songs with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Bach Choir.
Gabrielle ApLin / Richard Quinn Show, London (UK)
19 February 2023
/ The Instigator
Gabrielle Aplin / Photo - Video © Courtesy of Gabrielle Aplin
"Cut Me" by Moses Sumney / Photo - Video © Courtesy of Moses Sumney
MOSES
SUMNEY
CUT ME
USA
THE PERFECT CUT
Saville Row star Moses Sumney proves you don’t need splashy colours to make an impact, in his case, in fact, it’s the very lack of colour that is so striking. “Wearing all black has taught me discipline,” says the North Carolina-based Ghanaian American art-pop musician.
Everything Sumney does is glamorous and theatrical. “It’s thinking about what’s going to move,” he says. “I appreciate that it, as a wearer, forces me to be a bit more disciplined and knowledgeable, but also, for the viewer, it creates a distinction.”
Sumney gravitates toward draped looks and cuts that emphasize texture, fabric, and silhouette. Last year, he walked for Riccardo Tisci’s Fall 2022 collection, and attended the prestigious CFDA Awards with designer Willy Chavarria, suited in a piece that augmented head-to-toe black with subtle elements of religious iconography echoing Sumney’s background as the son of two Christian pastors.
“Now I know really what it means for something to be silk,” he says jokingly.
CUT ME
The musician opens up old wounds on a single from his latest LP.
Moses Sumney has long been fixated on the detachment that comes with personal or political isolation. To that end, Sumney has called his upcoming album “Græ” a “conceptual patchwork about grayness,” exploring statelessness, the shades of meaning in between, the feeling of being displaced from absolutes.
The fourth single from the album, called “Cut Me,” lingers in the masochism of constantly learning things the hard way. The weight of the message is made nearly imperceptible by Sumney’s graceful touch. His surgical falsetto makes precise incisions in the air. He sings of hurt as both motivating and life-affirming, of a need for some kind of friction to create a spark in his soul.
“Well, if there’s no pain, is there any progress?”
"Cut Me" Moses Sumney / (USA)
2023
/ The Instigator
GLYNDEBOURNE
FESTIVAL
2023
OPERA FESTIVAL
19 May – 27 August 2023
GLYNDEBOURNE
Fashions and attitudes may have changed since 30’s, but the opportunity to look gorgeous never goes out of style. Founder John Christie and his wife Audrey Mildmay opened the first Glyndebourne Festival in 1934, and encouraged the wearing of formal dress to show respect to the singers and musicians.
Today the world-renowned auditorium and standards of excellence are testament to Christie’s original ethos: 'Not just the best we can do, but the best that can be done anywhere'.
Early years of the Glyndebourne Festival revolved almost entirely around Mozart’s extensive repertoire of operatic works before gradually expanding to include works by other composers such as Benjamin Britten, Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini and many others.
Originally the theatre seated only 300. It was enlarged and improved many times in subsequent years to hold larger audiences. By 1977, it held 850 people. By the 1990s it was clear that Glyndebourne needed an even larger auditorium so in 1994 a new opera house was built to seat 1,200, opening with a performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. With the digital age and innovations, Glyndebourne has now online streaming to reach the latest generation and new audiences.
As per today, Glyndebourne reaches around 150,000 people a year with over 120 live opera performances.
Glyndebourne Festival / Glyndebourne (UK)
19 May - 27 August 2023
/ The Instigator
Photo / Video © Courtesy of Glyndebourne Festival
JUST PUBLISHED
ROMAIN BRAU
AT MADAME ARTHUR
PARIS
In a small street of Pigalle, Madame Arthur, a renowned cabaret from the late 40s, rolls out the red carpet for actor, cabaret singer Romain Brau.
As always, he has full control on his audience, and a master proficiency with his performance. Brau is liberating, and he is a breath of fresh air. He sings, interacts with his audience, and there is no escape from his charm, killing humour, and fabulous madness.
Here is a glimpse of his flamboyant aura at Madame Arthur. How dull Paris would be without him?
