Driven by fashion, art, music, culture and reckless abandon of our parents’ values, we are the
youth! though we’ve got the arcade fire and skinny jeans, and the kids of the 17th century
were more into powdered wigs and jean-baptiste lully, youth culture in both centuries are an
awful lot alike.
party like it’s 1699 is a postmodern-baroque spectacle that fuses both centuries’ visions of youth
culture; a cabaret show combining elements of music, contemporary dance, visual art, poetry and fashion,
from the brightest talents of the montréal scene. this production envisions history through the
simultaneously critical and fawning eyes of aleks schürmer and his ensemble les tabarnaks
d’époque.
come inside jonathan sévigny’s cardboard storybook theatre, where 18 century music, sung by soprano
ariane girard, comes to life with couture dresses and edgy choreography from andrew tay, dana
michel, mélissa raymond and sasha kleinplatz. supermodel irina lazareanu is the evening’s
host, offering her own musical and spoken word performances. featuring the music of clérambault,
couperin, lully, de visée and schürmer/lazareanu, with additional performances by indie-folk
artist david simard, dj dirty dan, and surprise guests.
{classical music performances in the 18 century were engaging,
entertaining, and thoroughly ‘modern’ in their aesthetics. historical
accounts of a baroque outing describe it the same way as someone blogging
about an indie or electro show today. so what happened? classical music has
stagnated; its performances have become homogenous, inoffensive and
totally foreign to today’s youth. even with all the careful attention to
culture during the 18th century, they still ended up losing their heads; so
one can only imagine where we’re headed… }
