Natalie Dessay | soprano
Shani Diluka | piano
Johnny Rasse | bird singer
Two peculiar “warblers” and Shani Diluka at the keyboard for a morning of poetry.
Rossignols!
Grieg Lyrical pieces for piano
Bird songs: nightingale, blackbird, great crested kinglet, swift chicken, herring gull
Fauré, Ravel, Delibes, Chausson Melodies for soprano and piano
Bird songs: turtle dove, wood pigeon, oystercatcher, curlew, whimbrel, redshank, griffon vulture
Debussy Clair de lune, Estampes for piano
Bird song: music thrush, robin, goldfinch, tawny owl
Rimski-Korsakov, Berg, Villa-Lobos, Arden Twentieth-century melodies for soprano and piano
Bird songs: red kite, common buzzard, loon, grey heron, tree finch
Natalie Dessay and Shani Diluka like to stray off the beaten track and have tried their hand together in the past at reading everything from Babar and Father Christmas to Proust on stage. Their associate this morning is sure to offer yet another original concert. Unusually, the title of the show does not refer to the high-pitched vocal exercises of the famous coloratura, but to the staggering virtuosity of Johnny Rasse, a unique performer who can “sing” every type of birdsong. From gulls at the Baie de Somme to the tweeting of a blackbird (his favourite), he can summon up some twenty species of bird to come and perch in the rigging of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which will be transformed for an hour into a nature reserve. This is open-air poetry.
Coréalisation Jeanine Roze Production | Théâtre des Champs-Elysées