Dangerous Liaisons   Harald Windisch – speaker
Anne Marie Dragosits – harpsichord

Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), the epistolary novel written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, is an iconic work of 18th century French literature and a scandalous libertine novel. It centres on desire, control, intrigue and power games between man and woman. To this day, this unvarnished portrait of the morals of the waning age of absolutism transports readers back to the depraved world of the French nobility shortly before the Revolution. In this performance, Anne Marie Dragosits and Harald Windisch take the audience back to this period. The musical “reading” – a sequence of contemporary pièces de clavecin (harpsichord pieces) compiled for the novel – is juxtaposed with excerpts from the work, thus offering the audience an even more intense experience of the text. Dragosits describes how the male view contrasts with the female view, how she uses music to characterise the figures in the plot. Tender and dramatic pieces are placed side by side, some describing external events, others inner emotional states. In total, a unique experience.

Harald Windisch – speaker
Anne Marie Dragosits –harpsichord