Pierrot lunaire sits somewhere between cabaret and concert, acting and singing, madness and depravity. It flirts with chaos as Arnold Schoenberg translates each tiny poem into music. It’s over a hundred years old, but it remains radical to the ear – a revolutionary classic that transformed music and concerts forever, just as Cubism changed painting. Even Ensemble Offspring’s distinctive line-up of musicians can be traced to this iconic creation and its grungy tale of the ‘moonstruck’ clown of commedia dell’arte.

In a one night only reprise where it all started at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Pierrot lunaire looks to Ensemble Offspring’s origins and imagines the future. And we’re pitting it against a long form new work by ‘triple threat composer-performer provocatrice’ Laura Bowler. In a fresh interpretation of Albert Giraud’s poems, Bowler will deconstruct and repurpose Schoenberg’s original musical material, viewing it through a contemporary queer lens in ‘a subversive act of defiance of the great master’. Laura herself will join us from the UK to take on the hyper-virtuosic challenge of Schoenberg’s vocal lines.

“Composer Laura Bowler's music is corporeal, hijacking the nervous system and sending shivers shaking down the spine. It…is often onomatopoeic, evoking screams, shudders, and squeals…”

-Broadway World

Program

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Pierrot lunaire (1912)
LAURA BOWLER Deconstructing Pierrot (2024)*

* Australian premiere - co-commissioned by Red Note Ensemble (Scotland), Music on Main (Canada) and Ensemble Offspring

Performers

Laura Bowler (vocals)
Jane Sheldon (vocals)
Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director, percussion)
Lamorna Nightingale (flutes)
Jason Noble (clarinet)
Véronique Serret (violin)
Blair Harris (cello)
Jack Symonds (piano)