Katarina Livljanić JUDITA
Music Theater
A Biblical tale from Renaissance Croatia, a text by Marko Marulić,
compiled by Katarina Livljanić and Dialogos, Vocal ensemble - France

Diocletian’s Palace, Basement Hal, July 20

Voice, artistic leadership, selection of text and musical reconstruction Katarina Livljanić
Director, scene design, costume design Sanda Hržić

Vielle, lyre Albrecht Maurer
Flute, shepherd’s twin Norbert Rodenkirchen

Concept and light realization Marie Bellot
Video projection of the text Jean Marie Jobard
Language consultant Bratislav Lučin
Duration: 70 minutes without break / Program with video titles

Program is prepared in Centre Culturel de rencontre d' Ambronay, in co-production with Festival in Ambronayu and ARCADI. Dialogos takes subvention from DRAC Ile de France - Ministry of culture and
comunication.

 

The world-famous ensemble Dialogos (France) is on tour in Croatia in summer 2007. We are proud to announce that the ensemble, led by award-winning Katarina Livljanic, collaborates with Illyria on this occasion. The ensemble performs a show inspired by the biblical story of Judith and Holophernes. The story is based on the poem by Marko Marulic (16 C) who is considered to be “the father of Croatian literature” and medieval Croatian writings. It is sung by Livljanic, the creator of the piece, accompanied by viela and lyre (ancient Croatian instrument) as well as ancient flutes. This fantastic staged performance of the ancient story is staged by Sanda Hrzic. Livljanic is giving lectures at several Universities in USA. The New York Times wrote: “Ms Livljanic has assembled a work so magnificent and moving that its resemblance to what medieval listeners might have heard is beside the point.”
Katarina Livljanić, singer and musicologist, is one of the principal international specialists in medieval chant performance. Born on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, she decided to become a medieval music performer at a very early age, training at the Zagreb Music Conservatory before moving to France to study voice (with Guillemette Laurens and Glenn Chambers) and musicology (with Marie Noël Colette). She directs the vocal ensemble Dialogos, specializing in medieval chant and liturgical theatre of the Glagolitic tradition. For her work in this field, she was decorated for cultural achievement in 2002 by the president of Croatia. She obtained a Ph.D. at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, based on research of medieval chant manuscripts of Southern Italy. She is currently Maître de conferences in medieval music at the Sorbonne University in Paris where she codirects a medieval music performance Master programme. As a vocalist, she performs in major international festivals with the ensembles Sequentia and Alla Francesca. She spent a semester as visiting lecturer and directed a Gregorian chant schola at Harvard University. In 1998 she founded a chant performance program at the University of Limerick in Ireland. She is regularlyinvited to numerous universities in Europe, in the United States and Canada as a teacher and resident artist. She has emerged as an important international speaker about medieval chant performance and publishes articles in specialized reviews wordwide. In 2002 she was a guest artistic advisor at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. With Benjamin Bagby (Sequentia), she has been awarded a Cornille Visiting Professorship at the Wellesley College (USA) in 2007. Her most recent solo project, a musical theatre production entitled Judith based on the masterpiece by the 16th-century Croatian poet Marko Marulić, was premiered at the Ambronay Festival in 2006.
Since its foundation in 199 7, DIALOGOS, the vocal ensemble directed and created by Katarina Livljanic, has emerged as one of the most outstanding and original medieval music ensembles of the new generation. The ensemble’s projects link new musicological research with an innovative approach to
medieval music performance, a theatrical dimension, and an expressive musicality. Dialogos is composed of both women’s and men’s vocal ensembles. Since its first projects Dialogos has been acclaimed by critics (in journals such as Le Monde, Le Figaro, Diapason, Los Angeles Times) and has
toured in many European countries (in all main early music festivals in France (Ambronay, Saintes, Rencontres du Thoronnet, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Voix et Route romane…), Germany (Romanische Sommer Cologne, Herne… ), Holland (Utrecht Festival), Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Croatia (Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Zadar), Belgum, USA, Canada, North Africa and Latin America), including radio and television broadcasts. Their CDs Terra Adriatica (released on the Empreinte digitale label), Lombards & Barbares and La Vision de Tondal (released on the Arcana label), Chant Wars (a coproduction with the ensemble Sequentia, released on the Sony-BMG label) have received press distinctions in international music magazines, including Diapason d’or, Choc du Monde de la musique, Goldberg 5 stars). Current programs of the ensemble focus on the archaic medieval repertoires : plainchant from Southern Europe and musical theatre. Among the theatrical programs, there is a Glagolitic Tondal’s Vision, staged by Sanda Herzic (in collaboration with Yoshi Oida, one of Peter Brook’s principal actors) which was released as a CD in the spring of 2004 and was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’or de l’année 2004 and the Coup de coeur 2005 by the Académie Charles Cros. The project Chant Wars, a coproduction with the ensemble Sequentia is centered on Carolingian chant and local traditions in Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries. Recent programs include Abbo Abbas…, an innovative vision of 11th-century English polyphony. Judith, a staged production of a biblical story from medieval Dalmatia was premiered at the Ambronay Festival in 2006. Dialogos has been awarded a three year residency by the Ambronay Cultural Centre. Dialogos receives a subsidy from DRAC Ile de France – Ministery of culture and communication, Cultures France and FCM.