A surprising preview has been chosen for the 77th Cycle of classical performances at the Olimpico Theatre in Vicenza: on May 1, the composer, musician, and director Meredith Monk will be in town, along with her colleague composer and percussionist John Hollenbeck, for a show at 9 p.m. It's a special event that sets the mood for the classic cycle scheduled between September and October, under the artistic direction of Ermanna Montanari and Marco Martinelli of the Teatro delle Albe. For Monk, it's a première in the city in recent times. A dancer, composer, singer, director (she directed two films, Ellis Island, 1982, and Book of Days, 1988), choreographer, and creator of new models of musical theater and opera, as well as installations, Meredith Monk is recognized as one of the most influential artists of our time and a pioneer in what is now called "extended vocal technique" and "interdisciplinary performance." In over fifty years of career, the New Yorker Meredith Monk (she is 81 years old) has created unprecedented visual and sound worlds, intersecting music and movement, light and sound, in a research aimed at renewing both the mode of listening and perception.
Through her voice (she is a soprano), Monk has rethought the technical possibilities of vocal expression, articulating landscapes and musical scenarios capable of evoking sensations, impressions, energies, and feelings. "Duet Behavior 2024" is an intimate evening about Monk's music, as it has never been experienced before, in which the artist and the jazz drummer and composer, John Hollenbeck, expand and improvise pieces by Monk, combining vocal magic with creative percussion, to generate new arrangements of iconic compositions. Hollenbeck, 55, a New Yorker, has worked with Bob Brookmeyer, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Kenny Wheeler, Pablo Ziegler, and Monk. He has composed, recorded, and taught percussion in Berlin for 11 years. Tickets: full price 30 euros, over 65 20 euros, under 30 20 euros, available at the theater's online box office, at the theater's box office in viale Mazzini 39, open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 3 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Info via email to biglietteria@tcvi.it or at 0444 324442
(from Tuesday to Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.).