French composer-director finds music in stone

CAIRO (Reuters Life!) - French composer-director Michel Risse and his Decor Sonore troupe turned the massive concrete structure of the Cairo Opera House into a giant musical instrument in a performance this week.

Musicians and technicians thumped the walls, rubbed the ramparts with brushes, probed the fishponds with rods wired with sensors, and even explored the acoustic potential of the metal fire escape.

The Opera House is the 13th structure that Decor Sonore has played its Monument-Instrument Programme. Other venues include a castle, a bridge over the River Marne in France, a spa resort, a law court, a swimming pool and a Dutch tugboat.

The window frames, railings, marble plaques and assorted statuary and furniture were all used in the one-hour show on Wednesday night, which members of the audience called amazing and "really cool.

Risse told Reuters the building was not his immediate choice when the French government commissioned him to do a show in the Egyptian capital.

Other options included the late 19th century Egyptian Museum, the 14th century Amir Taz palace in the old city and the Citadel built by the warrior sultan Saladin.

But the Opera House, opened 20 years ago on an island in the Nile, was the one which offered the best public space.

"I must admit that at first glance I was scared because it's a bit massive. There are not so many obvious sounds. I don't mean it's ugly but it looks like a blockhouse -- stone, stone and stone. But the surroundings are very rich," he said after Wednesday's show.

MARIMBA COLUMNS

Risse said he approaches each structure as though asking it questions and hearing how it responds. He uses a stethoscope as he rubs or taps it or hits it with a drumstick, looking for the places to put sensitive microphones for the best effect.

"It's like asking something of the object. It is the same for people ... If you want a good answer you have to ask properly the good question," he said.

At the Cairo Opera House, he found inspiration in the gallery of columns around one of the courtyards. "These pillars are like a rhythm, very regular, and it looks like a huge marimba bar. So it speaks to me and appeals to me," he said.

He also took advantage of the background noises inherent to the building. "There are so many air conditioners everywhere and each one of them gives a pitch, a rumble, so you have to tune into this soundscape. You cannot go against it," he said.

At the start of the show, Egyptian singer Dalia Farouk takes as the base drone for her chant the pitch of a huge air conditioner in an art museum in the garden. "It's the singer's orchestra, a sound partner," said Risse.

Risse, a rock drummer in the 1970s who later studied percussion formally and then played jazz, started the monuments program. It receives commissions from towns and other institutions and never charges members of the audience.

He said he was not interested in recording the performances for sale. "I like this project because it is so much away from consuming things. It's just here at this moment and it cannot be done anywhere else and we won't do it again, never," he said.

(Writing by Jonathan Wright; editing by Keith Weir)