Waits / Weill

Tom Waits has written two operas, some of whose arias Ictus is presenting in a concert. This reinterpretation has been entrusted to the rock singer Kris Dane. Kurt Weill is a kindred yet contrasting counterpart to Waits, and Judith Vindevogel will be singing excerpts from his operas written in his German and American periods.

The American blues singer puts the Berlin composer into perspective: the same melodic brilliance, the same feeling for disquieting deviations in harmony and the same way of using the main themes of popular songs: rebellion, the lover’s lament and drunkenness. Weill is remarkable in his embodiment of this version of modernity, which is not intended to redefine its basic elements, but is content to use them in a contrary manner. It is a diagonal poetry that tells of lives gone wrong and lost loves; it has neither the heart nor the time to make a frontal attack on great art.

Two adaptations had to be made for this project: the instrumental parts of Waits’ music, which in the recordings are partly improvised, had to be transcribed, and Weill’s orchestral scores had to be arranged for a chamber music ensemble. A good occasion to call in some Belgian composers who really know their trade (François Deppe, Fabian Fiorini, Jean-Luc Fafchamps).