SymphoniaHarmoniae Caelestium Revelationum

Marie-Pierre Brébant and François Chaignaud take on the challenge of performing the complete musical works of Hildegard von Bingen. Like two characters from another time, they immerse us both vocally and physically. Within this corpus, each note and each movement opens the door to new perceptual worlds.

Choreographer François Chaignaud and musician Marie-Pierre Brébant share a love of music as experience. Their Symphonia is inspired by a vision. The figure is Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine mystic who left behind an immense musical oeuvre: the Symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum. In a departure from Catholic hagiography and musical orthodoxy, Marie-Pierre Brébant and François Chaignaud immerse themselves, body and soul, in his work to bring out the freedom of these ardent visions and their carnal relationship with the divine. An unprecedented piece, their performance straddles the border between meditative installation, concert, healing practice and contemplative choreography. Using the combined resources of body, voice and bandura (Ukrainian lute), they conjure up a hallucination as much as a dance, a sculpture of time as much as a vision of ecstasy.