27/28/29 DECEMBER 2022 “Baudelaire Beethoven”
3 days for 4 performances, “Baudelaire Beethoven”, intense and magical with the actress Isabelle Krauss.
The public was present at the Théâtre des 3 Raisins, a charming theatre in Avignon, where I feel privileged to perform because the shows are of a very high standard.
We presented this show “Baudelaire Beethoven” directed by the actress herself who is also the artistic director of the theatre, at the Avignon Festival 2022 and it was a great success.
I perform Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Sonatas, movements from Sonata 9, 25 or 30 and many others, which Isabelle Krauss has chosen on poems and letters of the poet Charles Baudelaire.
The work of setting up was very interesting because the note with the word must be in harmony, with the right intention and above all a real letting go, as if the text and the music became one, like a delicate improvisation of two geniuses: Charles Baudelaire and Ludwig Van Beethoven.
The audience wondered about the combination of the two artists, who were not contemporaries. Charles Baudelaire loved Wagner’s music but also Beethoven’s. One can imagine Baudelaire listening to Beethoven’s symphonies or sonatas while writing his poems.
Isabelle Krauss plays Charles Baudelaire in the last period of his life when he lived in Brussels for three years. Through the letters he writes to his mother, we perceive the intimacy between a son and his mother. One might think that she would be the woman of his life. Idolising and idealising all other women, he has never been happy with any of them.
In this powerful and passionate performance Isabelle and I create an emotional surge accompanied by the passionate music of Beethoven.
Both the word and the note sound as if they were written and composed together.
“I feel like I’m living an hour-long Opera. These performances have given me the extreme requirement of perfect sound on the word and the greatest respect for the assembly of these two geniuses.
Working with Isabelle Krauss is a real lesson in rigour and pure creation.
Two radio interviews and a few reports on the newspaper allowed us to make it known more and to have the approval of the public.
It was a real pleasure to share this experience on the radio, to talk about our intentions, as well as the life of Charles Baudelaire and his creative concepts.
We are performing “Baudelaire Beethoven” again for the Avignon Festival 2023 and in this same theatre that I particularly like I will create my own show only with my compositions.