KRIS DEFOORT | DIRK ROOFTHOOFT

6 november
Opificio Telecom Italia

A poet, an actor and a musician: the alchemy between these three figures can become explosive, as seen in “The Brodsky Concerts” by Dirk Roofthooft and Kris Defoort. Poetry, theatre and music merge together and become a single art-form and protagonist of an evening dedicated to the re-adaptation of the classical literary reading in a contemporary key.

An elemental feature of poetry is the magic effect that sound and rhythm have on the single word or phrases. A magical charm which is in part lost through the way we read today: private readings, by ourselves or only mentally. Roofthooft is considered one of the leading European actors and has been protagonist of numerous theatrical works by internationally renowned directors such as Jan Fabre and Guy Cassiers; a talented speaker with a total mastery of the spoken work, he is able to interpret equally effectively the same roles in different languages: Flemish, French, Spanish, German and English. Roofthooft has now commenced his latest voyage into the innermost realms of the poetical works of the Russian poet and Nobel Prize winner Josif Brodskij, with the aim of rekindling that ancient magical element in his writings. A veritable challenge involving another accomplice in the form of the sound artist Kris Defoort, composer, pianist and with a great talent for improvisation; he is able to drift effortlessly between jazz, ancient music and the vast universe of contemporary music.

The peculiarity of “The Brodsky Concerts” is the presence of sonorous words, rounded and musical; when enunciated they become intimate, delicate and full of timbre rather like the Russian Orthodox preacher who recites his sermon in the singing style of a church cantor. This is the direction that Roofthooft and Defoort have taken to distil from ten of Brodskij’s most celebrated works the pure essence of this extraordinary Russian poet. Born in 1940 and passed away in 1996 after being exiled from the Soviet Union as a subversive, Brodskij took take up residence in the United States but chose Venice as his real home. Brodskij saw poetry as one of the means through which humankind was able to survive the incredible catastrophes of the 1900's. In his writings, he reflects on issues such as a profound consideration on the condition of humankind, the significance of existence and death, the power of poetry and its relationship with society. With Roofthooft and Defoort's contribution, the aura of a meditative soliloquy, a sort of intimate conversation between the reader and the writer which Brodskij created in his works, emerge; his words seem to take on a new patina which would undoubtedly have pleased the author as well. There are many fond memories of Brodskij in the Library of Congress in Washington reciting the poems of Anna Achmatova to an audience who—although they couldn't understand the words—was moved almost to tears by his soulful recitation.