Rituel

2023 creation

Ritual

"All we are is a ceremony:
the ceremony takes us, and we leave the substance of things."

Michel de Montaigne

THE SHOW

Stage direction, scenography and musical direction

Loïc Pierre

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Percussions
Eitetsu Hayashi and Fu-Un no Kai

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Direction assistants
Mathieu Bolcato and Félix Benati
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Stage direction assistant
Hélène Gendek

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French adaptations

Pierre Gief

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60 minutes without an interval
32 singers
5 percussionnists
1 musical director

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Distribution contact

Magali Cardeilhac

Choeur Mikrokosmos
31, avenue Henri Brisson 18100 Vierzon

+ 33 (0)6 73 42 16 57

+ 33 (0)2 36 55 28 54

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This project in progress wishes to explore even more the firt meeting between the Japanese percussionnists' troup Fu-un No Kai, led by Eitetsu Hayashi, and the Mikrokosmos Choir. This meeting was initiated by René Martin during the 2018 Folle Journée de Nantes.

Co-written by Eitetsu Hayashi, Loïc Pierre and Pierre Gief, Rituel intertwines ceremonies and processions, demonstrations and corteges, pilgrimages and carnivals, pardons and commemorations from every orner of the world. It is also an attempt to merge european harmonic universes with japanese theatre, the art of taiko magnified by Eitetsu Hayashi and choral arts as Mikrokosmos cultivates them.

The Orient and the Occident crystallize for a unique show enriched with cultural transfers, exchanges and influences claimed to be between adaptation, deformation, alteration, transmission, assimilation, quotation, collage, transposition and hybridation.

Finally, Rituel illustrates the sacred choral repertoire for the benefit of another choral gesture, more political: moanings and laughters of the pauper, praising feminism, war wounds, glorified environment and deified star for a world's ceremony and a human celebration.

Two versions of Rituel are available: the first one, fully a capella, and the second with taikos.

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Eitetsu Hayashi - percussions

There is no doubt that Eitetsu Hayashi is the most famous taiko ("drum" in japanese) player in the world. Since his first performance at the New York Carnegie Hall in 1984, he has been performing on the most prestigious stages. In Japan, musical traditions perpetuate with exactitude and severity, so as it might be difficult for a young artist to make them evolve. Yet it is what Eitetsu Hayashi did, since the early 1980's, with several groups and as a soloist. The taiko percussions, imported from China and Korea during the 6th century, are an important part of the Japanese folklore and culture. Eitetsu Hayashi brought about a revolution to the taiko practice by composing his own works, by collaborating with avant-garde artists and by designing spectacular stagings and scenographies. Despite these daring openings, Eitetsu's style expresses a sensitivity which is inseparable from Japanese aesthetics: "I would like people to see Japan's beauty and, at the same time, make my performances moments of high modernity. Both these things are not opposite."

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Photo : S.Oguma

Bruno Régnier (1958)*

Les gueux  (2020)**

Yves Rousseau (1930-2017)

Plus jamais ça** (1984)

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Bo Holten, Thomas Jennefelt,
Pascal Zavaro, Jonathan Rathbone, Jukka Linkola,
Aaron Jay Kernis, Jan Sandström

Omnia Vincit Amor (2020)*