This November the Dutch National Opera will premiere “Le Lacrime di Eros,” an experimental work that brings together music from the Renaissance with contemporary electronic music composed by the American composer Scott Gibbons, under the baton of the French conductor Raphaël Pichon, who is responsible for creating and developing the concept.

The work is built around rarely heard pieces from Renaissance composers operating at the dawn of the creation of opera, such as Peri, Cavalieri and Caccini, and will include, among other forms, large-scale and single-voiced madrigals, which will be presented by soloists and Pichon’s Pygmalion ensemble, consisting of orchestra and choir, presented from a modern perspective using new technologies in a dialogue with Gibbons electronic music.

The work’s central theme is love, but not in its sentimental form. Pichon and Romeo Castellucci, the director and co-creator, selected pieces that focus on the darker side of loss, tears, suffering and bitterness.

To find out more about “Le Lacrime di Eros,” OperaWire visits with its principal creator, Raphaël Pichon.

OperaWire: You will be conducting the Pygmalion ensemble. What were your aims when you formed the orchestra and choir in 2006?

Raphaël Pichon: My idea was to create a collective musical experience, a human adventure in which I could be part of a choir and an orchestra as a violin player.

It was a decision that changed my life.

At the time, I was confused by the French habit of having the choir on one side and the orchestra on another. I wanted to create a fusion and an equality between the two; the choir needs to be instrumental like an orchestra and the orchestra needs to be vocal like a choir. This is the key to so much repertoire. This needs to be at the centre of a project and what I wanted to achieve with Pygmalion.

OW: A common theme that runs through your work seems to be a desire to explore connections. Would that be a fair statement?

RP: Music is an essential and possibly the oldest means for creating connections. It is a universal language that is able to connect people even in situations in which they cannot speak the same language.

It is a fundamental reality. Music is a means of connecting humanity.

I am a very curious person, and when I was a teenager, music stimulated my curiosity. When you are suddenly fascinated by music, you want to know more, such as how it is constructed, how it works, and what are the sources of its inspirations. They are questions that move you beyond music. They open up connections that allow you to discover history, art, geography, politics and more.

Music also develops in response to connections; people who travel assimilate different cultures and influences, which they use to create new musical languages.

OW: What is your philosophy for making music?

RP: We have a responsibility to the new generation. The musicians of the 60s and 70s who were involved in rediscovering the music of the past were working at the margins. They were interested in developing a new philosophy about art and music. They did important work regarding the technical aspects and instruments, on rhetorical aspects, on color and drama, and in rediscovering past repertoire. We need to reopen the sounds of music coming from the past. The question is, what do we do now with this legacy? What is our role now? The rediscovery of our repertoire is not finished, but we are not in the same position; early music is now mainstream. This is fantastic news, but let’s make sure that we are not now stuck in a new tradition. We need to reopen the dialogue.

It is important to understand the world around us. Perhaps this is now more difficult than in the past; perhaps classical music is in a crisis. It is a question of political legitimacy.

Can classical music speak to us today? Can it continue to change our lives and to be an essential actor in our lives? The answer, of course, is yes. There are so many young musicians all over Europe. The conservatories and music schools are full of musicians who want to transmit their convictions about classical music.

For me, we need to live in a permanent laboratory. We need to continue with the current repertoire, but we also need to experiment. Experimentation needs to come with connections, and that is the purpose of “Le Lacrime di Eros.”

OW: So, you have no interest in recreating the music of the past for its own sake?

RP: I am very interested in discovery and exploring the music of the past along with its performance practices, but I am not interested in creating a museum. Classical music isn’t a museum; it is a living, present art form. Historically informed performances are very important, but I want to use this knowledge to take classical music forward; we need to progress.

OW: Could you elaborate on what you want to achieve with “Le Lacrime di Eros?”

RP: The purpose is to create the opportunity for musicians and audiences to rediscover a relatively unknown period in the history of music, that is the years leading up to the birth of opera at the turn of the 17th century, which was an amazing time, full of experimentation. The Florentines, using their intuition and new technologies, were inventing staging and machinery and using it to experiment with ways of presenting the human passions, including, of course, with music and theatre. They wanted to recreate the Greek theatre, but also a lot more. They tried out many ideas with the dream of creating a total art form, similar, in some ways, to Wagner. They wanted to bring everything onto the stage: music, commedia delle arte, perfumes, water and exotic animals, for which they created machinery and specialization of the sound.

So, why not use our new technologies and our accomplishments in the area of sound, such as sound mapping and computer technologies that interact with acoustics? This is the same approach that was employed in the 16th century, in which the great egos of the Medici and the Barberini engaged in endless competition from which emerged dramma per musica. We still don’t know enough about this period. There was an amazing amount of experimental music, including polychorality, harmony, combinations of instruments, ornamentation, and form. The constellation of experimentations was amazing. It was a unique experimental moment in our history, and for me it is a mirror of our time. We are full of questions about the nature of opera and the direction it should take. We need to reset the genre. This is the idea at the heart of “Le Lacrime di Eros.”

OW: How is your working relationship with your co-creator, Romeo Castellucci?

RP: I had the chance to meet and get to know Romeo years ago as he worked with my wife, who is a singer, and I became fascinated by his theatre; for me, he is one of today’s most amazing poets. He has the ability to open unexpected windows into the librettos that he is dealing with.

I first worked with him on Mozart’s “Requiem” in Aix-en-Provence. It was a unique experience in which I discovered a really humble, sensitive and respectful man, and we developed a really great collaboration. We have since done other work, including a double album called “Stravaganza d’amore,” based on the material we are using for “Le Lacrime di Eros.”

I’ve had this dream about staging “Le Lacrime di Eros” for years now, and after working with Romeo, it became crystal clear to me that he was the man I was waiting for to stage the work. When I first suggested the idea, he knew immediately that he wanted to be involved.

OW: How will “Le Lacrime di Eros” be presented on stage?

RP: We start rehearsals on Monday, so I cannot give you much detail about the staging at this point.

I discussed the details of the project with Romeo, and he is fascinated by the ways love presents itself with new faces in today’s society; this is what we will be exploring on stage, through music and the art of pictures. We have identified five different forms of love, but you will not really see them as separate entities; there are no borders between them. I have the opportunity to present them with different kinds of musical languages, ranging from polychoral, dance music, laments, madrigals, as well as more archaic forms. So, it will be a kaleidoscope of genres.

There are still aspects that I am waiting to find out about. Scott Gibbons wants his music to enter the human cell. Microphones will be in the bodies of the performers. There will also be lots of machines, which will also have microphones inside them, because in modern society we are interacting more and more with machines, and they also speak to us about love. We will be using algorithms to create an immersive sound mapping experience.

The orchestra will not be on the stage.

OW: Could you give an example of how one of the five aspects of love will be treated?

RP: This is more a question for Romeo. However, if we look at loneliness in modern societies, in which people have become so disappointed about human nature, we see that people are facing a strong choice, and some prefer to be engaged with an animal. Obviously, I don’t mean sexually. It is about a deep expression of love but connected to an animal. I don’t know how Romeo will stage this, but it is going to be interesting for sure.