Program note
BIZARRE BESTIAIRE is a setting of five poems by Jacques Roubaud from his 1991 book Les Animaux de Personne.
La Gerboise (The Jerboa) wakes up in the Sahara and, after a nutritious breakfast, jumps her way to school all the way until above Paris, France. Le Couscous Tacheté (The Spotted Cuscus) lives in the jungle and is being hunted. Between sleeping and hopping, running though the fields and eating clover, Le Lièvre Variable (The Variable Hare) takes us through the four seasons. Deep in the ocean, we hear of the strange sadness of the hungry Dugong (The Dugong). A grotesque tango tells the many comic episodes of the unfortunate Mouton à Grosses Fesses (The fat-tailed sheep).
Computer rendering
Details
Instrumentation
SSAA choir and woodwind sextet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, basson, bass clarinet )
Duration
23' in five movements
Date
2025
Sheet music
Available upon request
First performance
Premiere forthcoming