Water Music, Based on Handel's Masterpiece Tonight in Luštica Bay

By , 18 Jul 2019, 12:30 PM Lifestyle
Water Music, Based on Handel's Masterpiece Tonight in Luštica Bay Water Music concert, Copyright Cultural Centre Tivat

Water Music, a musical and theater project within the Purgatorije Festival, will be held tonight at 9.30 in the village of Luštica Bay in Tivat. NGO Ars-industria and the Montenegrin Music Center are organizing immersive concerts called "Water Music" for the first time in Montenegro.

The project is based on the eponymous masterpiece by German Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. It will be performed tonight within the Purgatorije Festival, and tomorrow at the same time in Podgorica, within the Podgorica Cultural Summer 2019 on Skaline.

Compared to standard concerts of classical music, this work represents a historical reconstruction of events from 302 years ago, on July 17, 1717.  An attempt has been made to interact with the audience through immersive effects derived from acting and dancing, which requires its involvement in the overall dramaturgy.

As its name suggests, the Water Music was indeed written to be performed on the water, commissioned by King George I to accompany a grand royal jaunt up the River Thames in the summer of 1717. “Eager to please his royal master”, as said on the BBC “the 32-year-old Handel composed a lavish, three-part suite for 50 musicians (a huge group for the period), packing it with raucous horns and woodwind instruments so that the sound would carry across the water.

At 8pm on July 17, everyone crammed into boats, and set off to travel the three-and-a-bit miles from The Palace of Whitehall up to Chelsea. The king and a gaggle of aristocrats watched from the royal barge while "a City Company's Barge was employ'd for the Musick", according to a report in the Daily Courant.

The composer himself conducted. Although there was "a great number of boats, that the whole River in a manner was cover’d", no one seems to have capsized, and George was so thrilled with Handel's piece that he asked for it to be played over and over again, including on the way back downriver. The performance is said to have finished long after midnight - pretty exhausting for the musicians.”

The aim of this interactive and interdisciplinary project is that through the cooperation of the non-governmental sector and institutions at the state and local level, artistic professionalism becomes the service of a wider audience, Montenegrin citizens and tourists, who through the innovative and affordable ways of realizing one of the capitals musical achievements will get to know the high art and became its consumers.

"Water Music" will feature 22 musicians, 5 actors and DJs from the ARS-INDUSTRIA Art Ensemble. The authors of this pilot project include Dmitry Prokofjev (music management), Zoran Rakocevic (director), Vanja Vukcevic (playwriter), Tamara Vujošević (choreography), Milica Piletić, Zoran Rakočević (dramaturgy) and producer Ljubo Kaličanin.

The event's sponsors are the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, the Culture Center Tivat, the Secretariat for Culture of the Capital City, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Montenegro, the Podgorica City Theater and the partners of PG Sound and Metropolis Media.

Free bus service will be organized tonight at 8.30 p.m. from the bus stop in the centre of Tivat, by the Post Office and the return is after the event. Concerts are open to the public free of charge.

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