Arts and culture
In the Making #9: Eloquence of the Ineffable — The aftermath of the 2018 opera La Tragedia di Claudio M
- Date
- Thursday 30 January 2025
- Time
- Address
- West in the former American Embassy
Lange Voorhout 102
The Hague
The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) of Leiden University and Art Institute West Den Haag are pleased to announce their close collaboration in the second season of the public series In the Making. This series, dedicated to the practice of research in the arts, will consist of seven public sessions taking place on a monthly basis.
The articulation of art and research has a long and rich tradition that has grown in scope and relevance in the past few decades. ACPA has played a significant role in this process, as it is an internationally pioneering institution that enables artists to conduct research through their own practice in a University context. In the Making is meant to both present to the public the research carried out within ACPA as well as to foster a dialogue with a number of international actors from a variety of disciplines.
Artistic research makes the relationship between art and society permeable. Rather than bracketed in the private realm of the lone artist or the sometimes-isolated circuits of the art market, artistic research opens up its practice to the public domain. Its methods become part of collective process of exploration and re-imagining. In the Making aims to deepen a perspective which conceives of artistic practice not as the sole product of individual visionaries but as a collective endeavor embedded in society. It addresses the role of art in the construction of the present and the creation of possible futures.
In the Making #9: Eloquence of the Ineffable — The aftermath of the 2018 opera La Tragedia di Claudio M
Although he proclaimed that words were the origin of his music, Claudio Monteverdi never found words to illuminate the process of this seconda prattica, his pathbreaking compositions in the new style of his times. From the moment of its revival around 1900, his music ignited the creativity of composers in the 20th Century and challenged them to merge it into their own work. Carl Orff, Ernst Krenek, Luigi Dallapiccola, Paul Hindemith, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna and Alexander Goehr delivered remarkable work in this sense. Fascinated by the immanent eloquence of Monteverdi's compositions, the work of those composers formed a parallel track to the development of historical performance of the original works from the 1920s until the present day. The artistic research project of creating La Tragedia di Claudio M synthesises both these tracks and reflects on the essence of Monteverdi and the inexplicable survival of his music disguised in new modernity. Convinced that Monteverdi’s original ideas were influenced by his viola bastarda improvisations leading to those inexplicable choices, Johannes Boer will demonstrate these with his colleague viol player Israel Castillo. The impossibility of putting this essence in words is the main subject of the dialogue.
Presenters: Johannes Boer, with guest Israel Castillo
Johannes Boer, musicologist and viola da gamba player, dedicated much of his career to combining both disciplines. He participated in ensembles like The Royal Consort, Huelgas Ensemble and Cantus Cölln. As a soloist, he performed solos in Bach’s Passions with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. For his solo CD, ‘Practising Time and Art’ he recorded viol music from the Dutch 17th century. In 2002, he led the Dutch Foundation for Historical Performance Practice (STIMU) and organised international symposia at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. As a member of the editorial board of Tijdschrift Oude Muziek, he wrote many articles, interviews, CD- and book reviews. From 2006 to 2020, Johannes was head of the Early Music department of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In 2014, he started a docARTES PhD project, which resulted in the opera La Tragedia di Claudio M (2018).