AS PART of the Galway Early Music Festival, innovative Dublin-based early music Ensemble eX will perform Possessed, a unique staged and costumed concert exploring the theme of possession through the prism of early music.
The production is conceived by eX’s artistic directors, husband-and-wife duo Caitríona O’Leary and Eric Fraad (who directs the performance ). It features internationally celebrated early music specialists soprano Caitríona O’Leary (Ireland ), Clara Sanabras (Spain ), Paulina van Laarhoven (Netherlands ), Steven Player (Sweden ), Harvey Brough (Britain ), and Francesco Turrisi (Italy ), all veterans of former eX productions and recordings.
Possessed will be performed as part of the Galway Early Music Festival on Saturday May 29 at 8.30pm in St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway.
Possession is a feature of certain religious cults and their initiation rites. It can involve identification with a god, spirit, deceased person, or totemic animal. Through the medium of trance this numinous entity overtakes or co-exists with the worshipper’s consciousness and personality.
Examples include the orgiastic rites of Dionysus/Bacchus in the ancient world and the Afro-Caribbean cult of voodoo. Both music and dance play an essential role in possession rituals. Music can signify or invoke spirits and deities, exacerbate hysteria leading to possession and, conversely, exorcise or bring a calming conclusion to trance.
In addition to the key elements of music and dance these rituals are often highly theatricalised performances with costumes; make up, props and role-playing.
EX’s Possessed is presented in four episodes each relating to a different cultural expression of this phenomenon. ‘Episode I, Ecstasy’, explores ecstatic possession as experienced by visionary Christian mystics like Teresa de Avila and Hildegard von Bingen; ‘Episode II, Witchcraft’, investigates demonic possession in 17th century England, ‘Episode III, Candomblé’, centres on the pantheistic Afro-Brazilian cult of which possession by a deity is a seminal feature.
‘Episode IV, Tarantella’, looks at southern Italian tarantism in which the bite of the tarantula was thought to induce mania and wild dancing which could only be is cured by a musical performance of a symbolic dance called the tarantella.
Music will include works by Hildegard von Bingen, Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, 17th century Brazilian music, and a selection of rarely performed folias, a dance form that literally means madness and was so named for the frenzy it caused in listeners.
Eric Fraad, a New Yorker who initially made a reputation for his innovative and daring work with opera, outlines the artistic vision of eX.
“We’re interested in working with like-minded international artists, specialists, and soloists and creating new syntheses of different musical styles,” he says. “The thing is, no-one knows exactly how early music was performed or sounded like so any present-day recreation of it is invariably a post-modern act. With this show we’ve assembled a synthesis of music from different cultures that create something rousing for performers and audience alike.”
While audiences may have a measure of familiarity with the likes of Purcell, and the European dance forms which feature in the show, what of the Brazilian-rooted candomblé music?
“Candomblé originated in the Yoruba culture of west Africa and then was syncretised in Brazil during the slave trade,” says Fraad. “The interesting thing is that its musical forms then came back to the Old World. In fact there was a lot of that cultural exchange going on at the time.
“Not only were the ships returning from the New World carrying gold, silver, and tobacco, they also brought back these new musics which influenced some of the most popular dance-forms in 17th and 18th century Europe.”
Also on Saturday May 29 at 3pm upstairs in Kelly’s Bar, Fraad will screen and discuss the film of his provocative production of Handel’s Messiah - in which the action is set in the lunatic asylum of Bedlam - from the Utrecht Early Music Festival of 2000. The production caused an international stir and was the most controversial production in the history of the Utrecht Festival.
Tickets are €19/13 or €5 for children. For more information on the festival programme, tickets, and bookings see www.galwayearlymusic.com
