Animal carnival

by Teatro Pho

Indoor theater

This proposal, conceived and conducted by Mima Jankovic, is a rediscovery of the orchestral work "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Saint-Saëns composed The Carnival in February 1886 while spending a few days in a small town in Austria. The work has become one of the most popular pieces of classical music that every child should know. It was composed for a "strange" formation, for an ensemble of instruments that does not fall within the canons of classical music's own formations; two pianos, a flute, a clarinet, a harmonium (few works of music classified as classical use this instrument), a xylophone, a celesta and strings (two violins, a viola, violoncello and double bass).

In front of the spectator a visual and sonorous space opens up that is shown as a laboratory of the process of creation, a living process, where we can approach the paradigm of artistic restlessness, the author's search through curiosity.

The music creates the images, taking our imagination and our senses through an endless space. An actor, representing Camille Saint-Saëns himself, a dancer representing Ana Pavlova, and a conductor with his orchestra and his action wrapped in a series of comic scenes, with dialogues between the conductor and the musicians, accompany the dance and the projections and represent this process of creation of a fabulous story, conceived to entertain but that transcends for generations.

The show is presented as a process where music, dance and video projections bring us closer to the paradigm of artistic restlessness.