The Journey & The River
A comic recital with the composer and pianist Itay Dvori
With two graphic novels by Edmond Baudoin and Alessandro Sanna entirely set to music
The premiere will take place on 5 July 2018 and will open the Summer of Graphic Literature at the Bibliothek am Luisenbad in Berlin.
The Journey and The River are the titles of the two graphic novels which Itay Dvori has set, in their entirety, to music for this piano soirée. The premiere will take place on 5 July 2018 on the opening day of the Summer of Graphic Literature at the Bibliothek am Luisenbad in Berlin.
The first piece of the evening is the musical setting for Edmond Baudoin’s The Journey. Edmond Baudoin (born in 1942 in Nice) is one of France’s most esteemed comic illustrators; audiences in German-speaking countries, however, are not well acquainted with his oeuvre. His distinctive art of drawing in black and white is simultaneously expressive and light, often autobiographical, and therefore personal and always very vivid. His book The Journey (original title Le Voyage, 1996, published in German as "Die Reise" by Edition Moderne) tells the story of a man who breaks out of the emotional constriction of a life crisis, leaves his family and career behind in Paris, and embarks on a road trip by car, sailing boat, train and on foot. En route, he has new encounters and re-discovers what friendship, love and self-determination mean to him.
The second work that has been set to music differs from the first in almost every way. In The River (original title Fiume lento, 2013, published in German as "Der Fluss" by Peter Hammer Verlag), Alessandro Sanna presents the habitat of humans and animals within a river landscape with colourful images full of poetry and with a calm narrative pace. Without words, and with a magical force of attraction, the book is a nostalgic love song to nature, human beings and the possible harmony between them, and is structured according to the four seasons. With The River, Sanna – who represents the younger generation of the Italian comic and is mainly known for his illustrations for children’s books and his unique colour technique – has made his international breakthrough as an illustrator.
