Harnessing the harmony of silence

The just-concluded Singapore Arts Festival 2008 was launched with "Water Fools" at Boat Quay, an aquatic production by French street-theatre specialists Ilotopie. The three-day outdoor evening show drew 30,000 spectators - a smart way to kick off a festival that attempts to prove the arts can take any form and are for everyone.

Six days later, at the Esplanade Theatre, the Asian premiere of the modern ballet "The Architecture of Silence" was billed as the festival's gala opening performance.

More than 130 ballet dancers, a choir and opera singers from two national ballet and opera companies from the Slovenian cities of Maribor and Ljubljana, in addition to the 66-member Singapore Festival Orchestra featured in the performance. The show had the highest number of artists ever performing on this world-renowned stage and was a perfect opener for the region's most-highly acclaimed festival.

The technically advanced ensemble and stalwart dancers moved lithely over an almost bare stage to Mozart's "Requiem in D Minor, KV 626" and Zbigniew Preisner's "Requiem for My Friend". Upstage, rows of choir singers were dimly lit, giving a breathtaking impression of candles piercing the gloom. On a box, house left, the opera singers appeared occasionally, their powerful voices filling the acoustically superb hall.

In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Edward Clug, the Romania-born 35-year-old house choreographer and of the Slovene National Theatre Ballet Maribor, said that it all started with the music.

"A theatre patron and a good friend of mine said she had this dream that somebody, either a choreographer or a theatre director, would put on a performance of three requiems, by Mozart, Saint-Saens and Preisner. I heard the combination, which she had a musicologist put in a musically logical order, and I had nothing to hang on to and was quite confused.

"Later on, listening again, I realised that it's so powerful, mythical and complete that it didn't need any visual extension or decorative element for the audience to experience it. I was afraid to even touch it. I didn't know exactly when this cut [of Saint-Saens] happened. It came out of a logical order. Then, I talked to the music director, Uros Lajovic, and suggested we use Mozart's 'Requiem' only until the eighth bar of 'Lacrimosa', followed by Preisner's 'Offertorium'. When I heard this part of the music, [the parts] matched wonderfully. I could also feel the distance, contrast and silence between them."

Concurrently, Clug was working with his dancers on the choreography. He said, "I wasn't thinking about the production then, but was just focusing on the movement of each dancer and trying to achieve more than just narrative moments. Of course, later on, I had to put them in the context of the production."

One of the most striking and recurring motifs was that of fish, something the audience became aware of even before a woman in white stood behind a water tank, downstage right, dropping pebbles into it. Clug said, "The image of fish came to my mind when I was thinking about the swimmer's costumes - which were not just a fashion statement. They actually symbolise fish, water and silence.

"Although the context of the 'Requiem' had its roots in Christianity, I wasn't looking to make a religious statement. I wanted to create a journey between life and death - well, actually not even death, but something in between, such as purgatory. I like its open dimensions and wanted to let every one have their own journey because I think anyone can understand it. I looked at it with an unclear but sincere approach."

The National Arts Council, the festival's organiser, made a bold decision in highlighting a company and a choreographer not yet widely known in this part of the world. And it came off: the performance was met with thunderous applause and critical acclaim.