Within “Adventurers”, B’Rock puts the finger where it hurts and directs the view of its audiences towards a widely overseen fact: the multifaceted relations between (Baroque) Music and oppression of Black People. From economical dependency of Handel’s opera endeavors on the exploitation of Black people to open racism in the European “music industry” of the 18th century, B’Rock wants to point towards mechanisms that still echo in today’s society.
Handel was in fact a so-called “adventurer”, a shareholder both in the “Royal African Company” as in the “South Sea Company”, and some of the most magnificent works of Handel came to life as their production costs were directly refinanced by the return he made from these investments. Pachelbel (junior) was among the first professional musicians to actually go and make a living in the colonies, owning two slaves and being paid for his teaching services by his plantation owning employers. Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-George, son to a slave from Guadeloupe and her white owner, became one of the most dazzling figures in the cultural Paris before the revolution. In the run for the post as musical director at the Académie Royale de Musique (later Paris Opera) he became victim to a campaign of a handful of influential singers and dancers, objecting to working under a “mulatto”, which led to his appointment being dismissed.
Three adventurers, three different careers, three perspectives on the early music business: B’Rock connects the dots with a program that aims at opening a discussion that ought to be had – while presenting a program of exquisite period music making with the outstanding Nardus Williams.
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This production was realized with the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government through Flanders Tax Shelter
