How Lilanoor Ensemble's performance explores French, German cabaret, folk music

Updated On: 19 September, 2023 07:54 AM IST | Mumbai | Shriram Iyengar

With their latest performance, Harmonie Deschamps’ Lilanoor Ensemble brings to Mumbai a glimpse into the French and German cabaret and folk music from the end of the 19th and early 20th century

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Deschamps, Benjamin Pras (on the piano) and Pierre Cussac in performance

In a moment of sublime introspection in Carol Reed’s 1949 classic, The Third Man, Orson Welles’ anti-hero, Harry Lime remarks, “In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror and murder but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and The Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; 500 years of democracy and peace — and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!” Lime’s remarks bear witness to the truth that chaotic times often produce great art, or at the very least, inspire a shift in its status quo. The Lilanoor Ensemble’s latest production at Prithvi Theatre on September 25 looks back at the results of the momentous times in France and Germany back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and their contribution to world music.

Deschamps with Cussac on in a moment on stage. Pics courtesy/lilanoor-ensemble.com