Waits / Weill: Ictus, Kris Dane & Judith Vindevogel

From this season onwards, the Ictus ensemble will perform in the Handelsbeurs. The concert 'Waits / Weill' was first performed on the occasion of 'Bruges Capital of Culture 2002' and was a great success. Tom Waits has written two operas, from which Ictus presents 'concert arias'. Rock and blues singer Kris Dane delivers a razor-sharp rendition of songs from 'The Black Rider' and 'Franks Wild Years'. Kurt Weill is the relative and opposite of Tom Waits. Judith Vindevogel sings songs from his 'Mahagonny', 'Dreigroschen Opera', 'Happy End' and 'Lady in the Dark'. The American blues singer Waits puts the Berlin composer Weill in perspective. They have the same melodic genius, the same sense of disturbing deviations in harmony and the same way of using the three main themes of popular song: revolt, amorous lament and drunkenness. For this project, Waits' instrumental parts and Weill's orchestral scores were adapted for chamber music ensemble. The Belgian composers François Deppe, Fabian Fiorini and Jean-Luc Fafchamps took on this assignment with verve.

"The new arrangements (by François Deppe, Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Fabian Fiorini) respected the anarchic character of Waits' songs and Weill's biting tone. But the real challenge lay in the singing, where singer Judith Vindevogel is phenomenal Weill interpreter showed: Her broad expressive palette from high screams to wry parlando gave even the best-known Weill songs such as 'Surabaya Johnny' and especially 'Seeräuber-Jenny' a surprisingly strong impact.

Rock singer Kris Dane had a surprisingly strong impact. the thankless task of making people forget the sandpaper timbre and inimitable idiom of Tom Waits in songs from Franks Wild Years and The Black Rider. He succeeded quite well, at least Not helped by the discovery of singing into a microphone and a megaphone at the same time. It gave his voice the necessary edge." (De Standaard, May 6, 2002)