Ensemble Irini

The Irini Ensemble reconnects with its origins by returning to the medieval Marian repertoire with an all-female line-up. Far from a disembodied and diaphanous image, INVICTAE (‘undefeated’) conjures up the image of holy Bacchantes. INVICTAE takes the audience to another place, a dreamlike Middle Ages, inhabited and possessed by women who sing, play, move and dance without stylistic constraints. For her first multidisciplinary creation, Irini invites dancer and choreographer Faustine Aziyadé, who brings the scenes to life with the singers and weaves a spatial link with the audience, with the aim of breaking down the barrier between stage and audience. 

INVICTAE begins as a classical concert with directed polyphony (the formidable virtuoso pieces of the Ms de Chypre), and gradually abandons this framework to move towards freer moments, until it reaches a veritable trance (a haka to Pérotin? Of course!). 

Without boundaries, without constraints, without academicism, INVICTAE is an ode to creative freedom and a love letter to the medieval repertoire as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, never as a prison.

The bonus? Our artists have hidden talents and bring out their instruments for this programme!

Cast

Lila Hajosi, direction
Faustine Aziyadé, dance & movement direction
6 singers: 3 mezzos and 3 contraltos