Tribute to Trisha Brown

It was with immense sadness that we learned of the death of Trisha Brown. The Aix Festival played host to this immense artist on several occasions: her staging and choreography of Monteverdi’s Orfeo made a huge impression in 1998 and, after a triumphant tour of Europe and America, it was revived in 2007. Trisha came back to Aix in 2010 in a “Rameau Evening” which included Pygmalion and extracts from Hippolyte et Aricie.

After having revolutionised dance with her New York performances in the 1960’s, she developed a very personal language in which abstraction goes hand in hand with supreme poetry. She approached opera through the works of Monteverdi, Sciarrino (Luci mie traditrici et Da gelo a gelo) and Rameau with an extraordinary elegance and sensitivity.The flight of the dancer interpreting the role of Musica in the Prologue of Orfeo remains an astonishingly special moment. I was quite astounded by her creation based on Schubert’s Winterreise, sung and danced by Simon Keenlyside with four male and female dancers from her company.

The collaboration with this great artist was one of the most beautiful and intense that I have ever had the opportunity of experiencing. I have a very precise memory of every one of our meetings and working sessions in Brussels, New York and Aix. Trisha was an artist of great gentleness whilst being extremely demanding. I can recall with a very intense emotion the improvised solo she offered to us in Brussels at the end of June 2007 at my farewell to La Monnaie party. It was, I believe, the last time that she danced in public.

Her artistry and her poetry will remain with us on our route.

Bernard Foccroulle