The week in classical: 74th Aldeburgh Festival

The week in classical: 74th Aldeburgh Festival
24.06.2023 - The Guardian

FIONA MADDOCKS

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One last event was The Art of Being Human, with musical direction by Laurence Dreyfus, leading his viol group Phantasm, and choreography by Sommer Ulrickson (premiered in Berlin in March 2023). This mesmeric show was physically daring, liberating all ideas of gender and inviting acceptance of difference. Figures emerged, like a living version of Rodin’s Metamorphosis, as if from rock. The musicians, interacting with five dancers, at times played their instruments while lying on the floor (an insurer’s nightmare). The music was by John Dowland, William Byrd, William Lawes, Orlando Gibbons and more, often played from memory. The impact was provocative and ethereal.

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