This story of an unconscious man whose soul quits his body was one of the most popular visionary stories of the 12th century. In this mysterious text, the soul – visiting hell guided by the voice of an unknown angel – gets lost on narrow paths and crosses bridges in darkness before returning to its body.
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Ms. Livljanic has assembled a work so magnificent and moving that its resemblance to what medieval listeners might have heard is beside the point.
The New York Times
One has the feeling that 'Tondal's Vision' and Dalmatia represent primarily a source of inspiration for 'a musical vision' of Katarina Livljanic. There is no doubt that her work is based on a deep knowledge of the sources, of the historical context and performance practices of traditional singers on the Dalmatian coast. But it is mostly her musical and dramatic intuition which give to this very specialized program a much larger force and dimension. In a reinvented musical language, between plain-chant, readings, traditional melodies and simple polyphonies (full of unexpected intervals), seven singers with superb voices and a rare commitment, carry us on a visionary voyage through time and space… to the other-side. Remarquable! (Diapason d'or of the year 2004)
Diapason, June 2004
An inclassifiable object that miraculously gives birth to a masterpiece.
Le Monde de la Musique, September 2004
There are some recordings which captivate the listener immediately. This is one of them ; and it's very surprising as well : by its theme, its music, and by the commitment of the singers led by Katarina Livljanic. The singing is luminous. Truly. This is music which makes your soul and your body vibrate, and in front of which one remains speechless. This record is an absolute discovery.
Classica, 2004
This is one of the most captivating recordings of early music that exist. An unbelievable journey. [...] Thanks to musicologist, singer and director Katarina Livljanić, the archaic becomes present, and the Middle Ages speak to us. This is more than a reconstruction!
Le Figaro, 9 September 2004
It is passionate and divinely beautiful from the beginning to the end.
Crescendo, September-October 2004
When sound gives birth to a vision..... One receives, in listening to the wonderful recording by Dialogos, a vision that leads to a universe, crossed by lightning from the hereafter that briefly illuminates a sorrowful soul.
Classics Today France
The legendary voices of the Ensemble Dialogos have marvellously interpreted "Tondal's Vision": voluminous and expressive voices, and a perfect diction of ancient Croatian.
Vijenac, Zagreb, 2004
Yet again, Katarina Livljanic has created a real miracle… This miracle grows from her strong and passionate conviction that 'old music' never became 'old', just that we have forgotten it. KL shows her love for the past by using it as a living, strong and vital materia. She uses it to create artistic and musical forms which become alive in her excellent interpretation.
Her art and manner of working triumph in concerts like this one, in which the audience is charmed during 90 minutes, breathless, with no interruption, by 6 magnificent voices shaped in the most excellent manner, precise as a blade.
In an appropriate and well-conceived staging by Sanda Hržić, who employed only lighting, motion and discrete gestures of the singers, this brilliant ensemble performed 'Tondal's Vision'.
KL created a musical fabric woven by delicate threads of Glagolitic, Gregorian and Beneventan chant, conserved in musical sources of medieval Dalmatia and in traditional chant. As in the most fantastic scientists' dreams of reviving lost species by using DNA fossils, KL is using written and oral traces to create her art and move the spirit of today's audience, with no difficulty, just as it would have pushed a medieval monk into a visionary and spiritual ecstasy. The most important criterium for musical authenticity is the conviction and force to move the audience. This criterium makes KL into an equally brilliant medievalist and artist.
Jutarnji list, Zagreb, 2004
At a late hour, in the church of St Pantaleon, the group of women's figures dressed in black, singing with the voices of angels, led the audience deeper in a truly labirinth of death. The medieval ' Vision of Tondal ', a knight, was masterfully reconstructed for six voices, based on glagolitic and latin sources. The liveliness of these ancient litany-forms, sometimes with astonishing dissonances, was transmitted during 75 minutes with a heartbreaking force.
Kölner Rundschau, 28 June 2003
One of the high points (of the festival Romanischer Sommer) was reached at midnight in the church of St Pantaleon, in the high, slender spaces of the former Benedictine abbey, where the Parisian ensemble Dialogos painted with sound-pictures the medieval 'Tondal's Vision', a grandiose witness to medieval piety. The conception and direction of this project were in the hands of the young, extremely impressive musicologist, singer and director Katarina Livljanic. Using old musical sources from Dalmatia and southern Italy, she reconstructed this long voyage of the soul into an invisible world; austerity and expressivity, humility and pathos were so thoroughly merged that the listener sensed the depth of the journey.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3 July 2003
A well-adapted staging and lighting by Sanda Hržić are entirely in the service of this moving story and the music which accompanies it, performed by six excellent singers in stylized black costumes. They sang this piece with an unbelievable force and dramatic intensity in their voices.
Vjesnik, Zagreb, 30 March 2004
Dialogos, directed by KL, is searching for inspiration in very ancient sources and using archaic elements to take us on a trip to a world which is very distant and yet close to us. Knocking on the door of a hidden historical memory, this ensemble inspires attentive and pure listening in silence and concentration.
Večernji list, Zagreb, 30 March 2004
Salve regina
(MP3, 1:22, 563 KB)
Zač noge tvoje sada u tanci ne igraju ?
(MP3, 1:18, 533 KB)
Summer 2008
• June 3rd, Cité de la musique, Paris
Amphithéâtre, 8pm
Programme: Judith
Booking: 01 44 84 44 84
www.cite-musique.fr
• June 16th, Dvigrad Festival
Kanfanar, Croatia
Crkva sv. Silvestra, 9.30pm
Programme: Judith
• June 25th, Romanischer Sommer
Köln, Germany
St Pantaleon’s church, 9.30pm
Programme: Judith
www.romanischer-sommer.de
• August 13th, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
Greyfriars Kirk, 5.45pm
Programme: Chant Wars
www.eif.co.uk
• August 19th, Festival de música antigua de Sajazarra, La Rioja, Spain
Iglesia de la Asunción, 8.30pm
Programme: Abbo Abbas
Booking: +34 941 320 346
• August 27th, Académie Bach, France
Varengeville sur mer’s church, 8.30pm
Programme: Judith
www.academie-bach.fr
August 28th-30th, 2008, Antwerp, Belgium
International Young Artists Presentation - Early Music
More information at www.musica.be