In the MUSICAL BELONGINGS series at the Humboldt Forum, lautten compagney BERLIN welcomes a legend of Caribbean Punta Rock: Pen Cayetano & members of the Garifuna Collective from Belize. Their music meets the English ballad opera Polly by Johann Christoph Pepusch and John Gay from 1729. The sequel to the successful play The Beggar’s Opera is set in an imaginary Caribbean with numerous “exotic” characters that a colorful London society encounters there. New and old Punta songs are arranged for this program for old European instruments and typical Punta percussion instruments, including turtle shells, maracas, shells and Garifuna drums. The event begins on September 12 and will run until September 15, 2024.
Image above:© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, Photo: Robert Paul Kothe, lautten compagney Berlin
With its project MUSICAL BELONGINGS at the Humboldt Forum, lautten compagney BERLIN is broadening its view of different cultures and, together with guest musicians, is looking for a musical practice beyond the label of “world music”. The musicians respond to the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art, which also houses many instruments and the Phonogramm archive with historical recordings from all over the world.
The new programme Punta gegen Polly. How to decolonize the Beggar’s Opera? deals with music from the Caribbean and European projections onto the archipelago. Guests include Pen Cayetano, the inventor of punta rock, and members of the Garifuna Collective from Belize. They see themselves as ambassadors of the culture of the descendants of African enslavers and indigenous people from Belize. Their punta rock, which is the leading dance form in St. Vincent, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize, combines traditional punta rhythms with modern rock: a rhythmic mix of Garifuna drums, rattles and turtle shells used as percussion instruments with electronic instruments
The music of the Garifuna is combined with the English ballad opera Polly by Johann Christoph Pepusch and John Gay from 1729, which had previously enjoyed great success with the Beggar’s Opera, the model for the Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. In Polly, a colorful London society is transported to the Caribbean, to the so-called West Indies. This name bears witness to the mistake made by the first European colonizers, who mistook this group of Caribbean islands for a part of India. Imaginary indigenous characters such as Pohetohee and Cawwawkee as well as various pirates also appear in the singspiel.
New and old Punta songs were arranged for old European instruments and typical Punta percussion instruments especially for the program. You can hear turtle shells, maracas, shells and Garifuna drums. The subsequent audience discussion will focus on the Eurocentric view of the Caribbean and the musical traditions of the Garifuna, who came to Honduras in 1797.
Contributors
Pen Cayetano – composition, guitars & vocals
& members of the Garifuna Collective
Desiree Diego – vocals & percussion
Kenrick Luvlace Lewis – turtle shell & vocals
Denmark Flores – Garifuna drums
Ingrid Cayetano – Curator
Aminata Toscano – Soprano
Christoph Pfaller – Tenor
Georg Bochow – alto
Raphael Riebesell – Baritone
Wolfgang Katschner – Musical Director
Christian Filips – Music dramaturgy
The lautten compagney BERLIN is one of the most renowned and creative German baroque ensembles. Whether as a chamber ensemble or as an opera orchestra, the ensemble, under the artistic direction of Wolfgang Katschner, constantly overcomes boundaries with infectious enthusiasm and innovative concepts and seeks encounters with new sounds and other arts.
The lautten compagney BERLIN is a winner of the OPUS Klassik 2019 and was honored in the “Ensemble/Orchestra” category with the recording War & Peace 1618:1918 with Dorothee Mields. The CD Timeless, which combines early baroque music with works by Philip Glass, was awarded the ECHO Klassik in 2010. The 2012 Rheingau Music Prize was also awarded in recognition of lautten compagney’s innovative concert programs.
MUSICAL BELONGINGS IV
lautten compagney BERLIN meets Caribbean Punta Music: Punta versus Polly. How to decolonize the Beggar’s Opera?
September 13-15, 2024, Hall 2, tickets: 16/8 euros
6 pm: Musical introduction (Foyer)
7 pm: Concert (Hall 2)
8:30 pm: Audience discussion (Hall 2)
Program and tickets: humboldtforum.org/lauttencompagney
The project MUSICAL BELONGINGS I-IV 2023/24 is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) as part of the “Excellent Orchestral Landscape Germany” program.
One house, four players: the polyphony is already inherent in the collaboration between the partners. The Humboldt Forum brings together the Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the National Museums in Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with the Humboldt Laboratory as well as Kulturprojekte Berlin and the Stadtmuseum Berlin with the Berlin Exhibition.
WHEN?
September 13-15, 2024, 7 p.m.
WHERE?
Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
Hall 2
Schloßplatz
10178 Berlin
COST?
16 EUR, reduced 8 EUR
