Requiem, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

When the Arcana Ensemble asked me to once again collaborate with them for a concert, in the Fall of 2018, I accepted without hesitation. Granted, approaching Mozart's Requiem from a staging point of view would certainly prove to be a considerable challenge, but I had no doubt that this endeavor would bring our collaboration to a new level of understanding.

I presented them with a "concept" which seemed to make this concert’s oscillation between plainsong and Mozart’s mass dramaturgically coherent: to turn the singers into the guardians of the sanctuary where they would sing. They would walk and chant as ghosts watching over eternity with songs for the dead. Dressed in white and covered in eery dust, they would resemble the statues that haunt temples, ensuring the passage of the dead for whom they raise their voices. A more abstract than illustrative interpretation of the text, which draws us closer to our common goal: to share the universality and timelessness of these pieces with an audience welcomed for its diversity.

Émilie Rault - September 2018