Prêt-à-porter ou coupe sur mesure ? Liberté et contraintes de la temporalité dans l’interprétation de la Sequenza III de Berio

2017

National audience; Sequenza III (1965-1966) for Female Voice by Luciano Berio is one of the leading works in the solo vocal repertoire after 1945. The work is the culmination of a fruitful on-going collaboration with Cathy Berberian, interrupted by the singer’s death in 1983. Perfectly knowing the singer’s vocal possibilities, Sequenza III was “not only written for Cathy, but about Cathy” as the composer asserts. It is then legitimate to ask the question of the fate of the work, since Sequenza III was by no means reserved, in Berio’s mind, to a dedicated performer. In order to answer this question, this article analyzes five recorded performances (Berberian, 1967 and 1970; Castellani, 1998,…