About Denis Gougeon's Composition
Clere Venus (2001)
seven sonnets of Louise Labé
Essentially sharing the same theme, the 24 sonnets produced by Louise Labé are individually self-sufficient works: They may have been savoured one at a time, as true miniature jewels of fourteen, decasyllabic verses.
However, upon reading, I sensed that it might be possible to group certain sonnets to form a suite. The idea of composing a 'night' of seven tableaux, thus, appeared to me as an appropriate dramatic structure, imbued with a logical flow of succession that could support all musical expression. Therefore, for this staging, I chose sonnets that could form a narrative showing a woman addressing Venus in a painful outpouring that lasts the entire night.
She is racked by extreme torment, suffers from love's indifference, confides her desperation to her lute, craves sleep in order to live out her love through dreams, passionately exchanges kisses (always in her dream?), and finally begs the coming of dawn and the return of the beloved.
For the music, I drew on a large expressive palette that expresses amorous desire as nearly as possible.
Louise Labé (1524-1566)
As the daughter of a wealthy string maker, Louise Labé received a modern education for her time, one inspired by Italian thought. She is credited with founding one of the first literary salons. Of her personal life we know little, but early legend, based on her poetry, would have her known as a courtesan. Indeed, moral judgment also came from her own generation, mainly from rigorous purists such as Calvin. Whatever the case may have been, the publication of her works in 1555 was a marked literary event. She was one of the first to claim a space for women in the world of literary creation.
Programme note by Denis Gougeon
Esprit performance: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - "New World" Music - at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto. Ontario.
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