The Kaaitheater presents the exhibition Kanalbühne, a new project by the Swiss PAK collective on the (non-)urbanisation of the Sainctelettesquare. On 2nd June, we celebrate the opening of the exhibition with a series of performances on and around the square and a drink in the Kaaitheater foyer.

In this programme Capilla Flamenca presents twelve typical works from the Ars Nova repertoire (fourteenth century), as well as several secular works by Guillaume de Machaut, the absolute master of the Ars Nova. In compiling the programme Capilla Flamenca was inspired by the beautifully illustrated zodiac which Jean de Berry commissioned the Limburg brothers to paint. 

The musical expression of an obsession is perhaps the best way to sum up Jakob Lenz, an opera by the German composer Wolfgang Rihm. It is based on the short story by Georg Büchner about the schizophrenic poet, Jakob Lenz. Rihm’s passionate music is played by the Beethoven Academy and sung by members of the Teatro Colon chorus from Buenos Aires. The soloists are Hagen Matzeit, Lorenzo Caróla and Marek Gasztecki. Caroline Petrick is the director of this Muziektheater Transparant production.

A selection of recent work for viola, solo and duet.

The work by Lachenmann you will hear is Serynade, one of the great piano pieces of the end of the last century and a challenge to both performer and listener, a rich work that leaves a lasting impression. There is also work by Matthias Pintscher and Salvatore Sciarrino. The pianist Marino Formenti was praised by the Los Angeles Times as ‘a Glenn Gould for the 21st century’.

The Hungarian conductor Peter Eötvös is also among the world’s top composers. In 2000 his Chekhov opera Three Sisters appeared at La Monnaie and this season Bozar has devoted a series of concerts to his music. Here his work comes face to face with that of two composers of the youngest generation: Bruno Mantovani and Franck Bedrossian.

Sequentia was founded by Benjamin Bagby and the late Barbara Thornton in 1977 and presents a repertoire extending from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The ensemble has its headquarters in Cologne and scored a ‘world hit’ with its recording of the Canticles of Ecstasy by the mystic Hildegard von Bingen.

Alexandr Petlura is an artist from Moscow who collects ‘symbols of eras’.  He uses his huge collection of trash in installations and performances that are occasionally hilarious. Street of Truth is the history of the Soviet Union in pictures, dating from the start of the century until now. You will hear the sound of Russian songbirds, speeches by Lenin and Stalin, conversations in the street, and the clothes of urban maniacs. ‘Everything you see in this project is true!’

The Italian group Kinkaleri is made up of six artists. Their work ranges from theatre and dance, performances, installations and video-films to radio plays, musical compositions, publications, etc. Kinkaleri will stage three productions which together form a trilogy: My love for you will never die, <Otto> and I Cenci/Spettacolo. The title I Cenci/Spettacolo refers to Les Cenci, Antonin Artaud’s last play.  Kinkaleri’s main interest is not Artaud’s life, or what he wrote for and about theatre, but ‘the utopian, existential and philosophical tension between a maker and his work’.

The Italian group Kinkaleri is made up of six artists. Their work ranges from theatre and dance, performances, installations and video-films to radio plays, musical compositions, publications, etc. Kinkaleri will stage three productions which together form a trilogy: My love for you will never die, <Otto> and I Cenci/Spettacolo. <Otto> can be regarded as a ‘vacuum’: a place to stay and wait. Viewer and viewed merge together, so that every form of display in the theatre is immediately questioned.

Why do people want children? The answer to this question is examined in short scenes and dialogues in Families Are Formed Through Copulation / La Famille se crée en copulant by PME. This Canadian group uses a mixture of disciplines in its performances and has a predilection for the awkwardness and complexity of communication. They see this ‘maladjustedness’ as one of the basic features of theatre as a medium. The work is based on group improvisation and is directed by the English-speaking Canadian Jacob Wren.