Ensemble Intercontemporain

Berio’s composition Laborintus II, premiered in 1965 and commissioned by the ORTF on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth, finds a congenial equivalent to the category of the ‘multiple work’ – as a fusion of instrumental sound, electronic sound, sound and action – in Eduardo Sanguineti’s Laborintus Poem, which combines Dante verses with other texts like a collage.

For fans of ‘théâtre instrumental’, Georges Aperghis’ project ATEM (Atelier Thèâtre et Musique), which he founded in 1976 – incidentally in the same year as Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble Intercontemporain – on the outskirts of Paris in the Bagnolet suburb and later moved to the Théâtre Amandier in Nanterre, is a must. With his music theatre, which plays equally with the everyday and the poetic, the absurd and the satirical, the theatrical and the instrumental, Aperghis and ATEM magically attracted composers, artists, actors and musicians who wanted to transcend the predetermined boundaries of their profession, such as the actor and director Michael Lonsdale, the trio Le Cercle and many others.