Atelier Opera: Maison des Cultures de Molenbeek
Excerpt From The Musical ' West Side East Side Story.
1- La Petite Fille Modèle
2- Prés de ta Maison
Neighborhood Opera Workshop at the Molenbeek House of Cultures
L'ATELIER OPERA of Molenbeek Animated by Samir Bendimered & Natalie Rasson.
Every Saturday lunchtime since 2007, the Maison des Cultures de Molenbeek has been hosting a fantastic neighborhood opera workshop, with amateur singers mostly from the local community. The workshop is a participatory, intercultural and transgenerational project, led by composer Samir Bendimered, who has been in residence at the Maison for many years.
In 2008 and 2010, two operas were co-produced by the Maison des Cultures: "La Marche des Anges" and "Safina".
Written by Samir Bendimered, the opera 'La Marche Des Anges'( 2006/2008) could be read both as a critique of the world of show business, and as a questioning of the capitalist Western world, which fascinates and attracts the world's most destitute, and which lays down arbitrary laws for new arrivals.
For the record, Safina was a fantastic philosophical and musical voyage, the result of two seasons of intensive introductory workshops in opera singing and featuring 40 artists. Inspired by the testimonies of young Algerians ready to do anything to reach Europe by braving the waves, SAFINA (the longboat) took us in the footsteps of Jonah...
WEST SIDE EAST SIDE STORY A PROJECT SUPPORTED BY EUROPE
The originality of the West Side Esat Side Story project has seduced the European Union, bringing together several Italian and English partners who have joined in the methodology of creating this participative UFO.
Launched in 2000, Lifelong Learning Grundtvig is a European program that encourages adults to deepen their knowledge and skills to keep their minds alert and facilitate access to employment. This concerns learners as much as teachers, structures and associations involved in lifelong learning, at local and international level. The aim is to share experiences and implement concrete, innovative results, through pilot projects in strategic areas, while highlighting the European dimension of the approach.
A film on this extraordinary collective adventure has been released (2014)
Text & Music: Samir Bendimered/2014
Kompost/Opera 2019/2021
Kompost is an allegory. A gallery of scenes unfolds before our eyes, like a mirror held up to our world, the world of our disillusionment but also of our desires, the world of our inconsistencies but also of our heartfelt impulses, the world of our actions but also of our inactivity, a difficult world since the dawn of time...
In this gallery, we come across human wanderers: a sister in search of a loved one and pursued by a shadow, a baby found in a garbage dump, a messenger with nothing to say but challenges. People who feel sorry for these characters but refuse to put their personal comfort at risk. Who will help them find this baby's parents, and what will become of him?
Kompost is a poetic opera, a work that is both profound and light-hearted. Humor and music help to carry the audience to a place where only writing without words can sublimate suffering and touch the very depths of humanity. This creation is a reflection of his troupe: motley, enthusiastic, ready to do whatever it takes to build a utopia that suits them.
Music and piano: Samir Bendimered | Text: Samir Bendimered based on a collective creation and reflection process.
Created by Molenbeek's Maison des Cultures et de la Cohésion Sociale.
Next Project is the adaptation of the Midnight Summer Dream of William Shakespeare
Creation 12/2024