Although the Argerich Festival ended a little over a week ago, somehow Joan of Arc at the Bonfire by Arthur Honegger, where Charles Dutoit and Annie Dutoit Argerich, father and daughter, will share the stage at the Teatro Colón, can be thought of as a continuity.
Martha Argerich could not go on tour with Daniel Barenboim because she contracted Covid, which will allow her to be present to see her daughter and great friend at the only function on Saturday. The work, written in 1935, is presented as part of the tenth Subscription of the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón.
The creation of this opera-oratorio, as it was called in its initial stages, about the heroine who led the French army against the English troops besieging Orleans in the fifteenth century, had an exemplary collaboration between Honegger and Paul Claudel as librettist, rarely was there such an organic integration between text and music. Strictly speaking,Claudel's text is a poem.
On a break from rehearsals, Charles Dutoit and Annie Dutoit-Argerich take time to chat about the play. "Joan of Arc at the Stake is one of Honegger's best works, who has written five symphonies, symphonic poems, chamber music, things like King David, among many things," says the musical director.
Annie Dutoit Argerich and Charles Dutoit, before the premiere of "Joan of Arc". Press Teatro Colón/Arnaldo Colombaroli/Juanjo Bruzza
- Ida Rubinstein commissioned the play and she premiered it as narrator. It is because of her, in part, that the work includes reciter, right?
Dutoit: Yes, she was a very rich Russian woman and had her own dance company. She started dancing very late, she didn't have good technique but she had a great personality and was very charismatic. She commissioned Ravel's Bolero, works to Milhaud, Stravinsky's Persephone -also with reciter-, and Joan of Arc was the last.
In the '20s and '30s, taking out the Story of a Soldier, which was the first, the custom of including a narrator was something new. In 1925 Stravinsky's Edipus Rex includes reciter, many works by Milhaud, and King David and La danse des mort, by Honegger.
-But the kind of narration that Honegger demands in Juana... It has a level of complexity, with many subtleties, that is far from the other works with narrator.
Dutoit: Yes, in Juana... the narrative is totally subjective. There is a level of integration between the music and the text in some passages that makes them very difficult for the actors, they have to do the rhythms with the orchestra very precisely.
"And how is Annie doing with that difficulty?"
Dutoit: Very good! He has no problems. Only occasionally he makes an accent on a word, which is used every day, but in the work you have to neutralize it. Tomorrow we will have the first rehearsal with the choir. Let's see.
Annie Dutoit Argerich and Charles Dutoit, in the rehearsals of "Joan of Arc". Press Photo Teatro Colón/Arnaldo Colombaroli/Juanjo Bruzza
A character we know a lot about
-Annie, how current do you see the character?
Annie: Claudel was very Catholic. You have to take into account how he saw Juana. In addition, when he wrote the work they had canonized Juana, after the First War. Then you can also read the work as Joan looking at the book of her life before canonization. There are several layers. Now, as a character it's very interesting, because we have a lot of real information.
In fact, there are two trials. And in those writings are the words of Joan, as she answered the judges. And 25 years later they made another trial to vindicate her, there were many witnesses, people from her town who had known her and talked about her. So we have all that information. And Claudel is very precise, he puts real things, but within a different context.
-Inside a poem.
Annie: Yes. For me the interesting thing, and it is quite clear in this work, is that he is a person who somehow frees himself from institutions. And Claudel says it too.
"He had to fight against many things, because at first the father was against him joining the army.
Annie: Yes, he thought it was a tremendous thing for a woman to be in the exercise. And Juana also had to undo a courtship to do what she did. He was a 17-year-old girl. Incredible. It is the strength of the conviction to do something against everything. I think it's a great inspiration.
-The work has many elements – narrator, solo singers, orchestra, choir, Martenot waves – and it is difficult to label it in one genre. It has elements of a cantata, but it is not exactly; neither an oratorio nor an opera.
Dutoit: It's a work in the sense of an opera. The participation of the choir is not like the choir of an oratorio. In the card game section, he is active, participating as an actor from time to time. It is a work for the stage, it is not an oratorio. It is done from time to time with scene.
-What are the advantages of doing it with and without a scene?
Dutoit: In Japan I did it once with a stage. Both are fine, only for the stage version you need a lot of actors. Here is a reduction of three actors and seven singers. Of course, when you do the version without a scene, there's more concentration on the music. Another version comes out of a concertante version.
Charles Dutoit, Martha Argerich and their daughter Annie. Together before "Joan of Arc". Press Photo Teatro Colón/Arnaldo Colombaroli/Juanjo Bruzza
-The orchestration is very particular, with the inclusion of Martenot waves, that electronic instrument, among other things.
Dutoit: Martenot waves are for certain purposes and sometimes join with percussion. It is a totally traditional orchestra, but the strange thing is that there are no horns. The horn is in the brass group, but in that group Honegger took out his sonority and changed the color. I don't know why, I don't know any other work without horns.
-The play has twelve scenes, and then a prologue was added. What is it about?
Annie: Yes, it's an introduction to context and was written after the premiere.
Dutoit: You talk about the dark situation in France at that time. It is the most objective part, then we enter Juana's world.
A work with complications
-What challenges does the work pose musically?
Dutoit: It is not an easy work, there are themes of orchestration, of balance. Miguel Ángel Pesce, director of the choir Ensamble Vocal Cámara XXI is doing a very good job with the choir. The construction of a line of musical continuity, and you have to distribute the elements well, there is also a children's choir, actors, etc.
-One of the highlights of the play is when Juana recalls her childhood, in the seventh episode?
Annie: There are several moments because there are several Juanas: the girl, the warrior, the myth... And in the end, the fear of death.
-Annie, what challenges does the work face you?
Annie: It's a very big challenge. The vision of Paul Claudel, the librettist of the work, is very interesting because what it raises is the perspective of Juana, what she hears. The orchestra, the choir, is his vision, part of his subjectivity.
The story focuses on the last moments before dying. There is something very poetic, it is not a play where you can follow a script; It is, but they are different moments from what he imagined happened to Juana before he died. The work is a dilation of a super condensed moment.
Dutoit: It's a fantastic work and it will be important for Annie, but it wouldn't be possible if I hadn't done Clara Wieck before. We did the Story of a Soldier, but Honegger is something else, more than 200 performers with the orchestra, soloists and choir. It's a huge work.
Annie: While I listened to A Soldier's Story as a child, Joan of Arc is a whole new world for me.
Annie Dutoit Argerich and Charles Dutoit, in an essay of "Joan of Arc". Press Teatro Colón/Arnaldo Colombaroli/Juanjo Bruzza
Information and file
Joan of Arc at the stake
From: Arthur Honegger, after the poem by Paul Claudel Director: Charles Dutoit With: Annie Dutoit Argerich (Joan of Arc), Axel Blind (Dominican Brother), Dominic Rouville (The Reciter), Laura Pisani (The Virgin and Voice of the Prologue), and cast. Performers: Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, Ensamble Vocal Cámara XXI, Director Miguel Ángel Pesce Room: Teatro Colón Function Saturday 12 at 20
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