Unparalleled Experience
That Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort is an excellent pianist is beyond question. But he also has masterly creative and organizational talent. He toured with the Neapolitan theater company Ludovica Rambelli Teatro through Flanders. Eight locations were carefully selected that matched the prestige of the main character, none other than Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio. Mechelen was scheduled for September 30, precisely the date on which this painter-icon was baptized in Porto Ercole in 1571. Caravaggio lived only 39 years (coincidentally, just like Frédéric Chopin 200 years later).
No better text, no more suitable delivery than the introduction by Dirk Van Kerckhoven performed by actor Stefaan Degand: "In the deepest darkness of the cold, eerie night I encountered him, his world, his soul written on canvas...". Fragmentary tirades sketched the tormented wandering existence of a "fighter fleeing justice and trapped in paint".
Black and White
Meanwhile, the interplay of white and gold in the high choir had been darkened and only the confessionals lit up in an overcrowded Sint-Pieters- en Pauluskerk. A chiaroscuro that instinctively evoked the painter's specialty.
On stage nothing but the black and white of the grand piano and of the undergarments around eight lithe bodies — three women and five men — who, swaying to the strains of Bach, calmly and composedly draped, folded, arranged, knotted large black, white and red veils.
And, whoops, before you knew it, you saw a reclining Christ, borne by restrained figures with faces twisted with sorrow. That was the first of 25 'tableaux vivants'. Just as many times a well-oiled veil dance froze into a painting where life momentarily stood still.
Some blue added, some green, some brown, a few accessories — a small table, a stick, large white wings, a flower... Enough to present the "Annunciation to Mary", the "Martyrdom of Saint Ursula", the entire Passion narrative stunningly in imagery with matching music by Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Sibelius. Not as background! When Liebrecht plays, that is a true recital. That's how professional he is. The melancholy emanating from Caravaggio's work received a playful finale with a young Bacchus inviting one to a drink.
No reception, but a well-deserved standing ovation. And a promise to those who had paid for the beautifully produced program booklet through the booking that it would be sent later, as delivery had not yet arrived! The only false note came from outside, namely DHL...