SEE Global Entertainment (SEE ™), is a family of companies representing the finest in themed entertainment specializing in global touring exhibitions including; Star Trek, King Tut, Titanic, The X-Files, Asterix, Frida Kahlo, Michael Jackson, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Museum of Failure, Disgusting Food Museum, and LumiNight Lantern Festival.
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The Exhibition
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition showcases the awe and wonder of arguably one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements, while allowing its visitors to experience this art from an Up-Close, Life-Sized, and Never-Before-Seen perspective.
With special expertise and care, the ceiling paintings from the Sistine Chapel have been reproduced in a truly unique way using licensed high definition photos. Brought to life using a special printing technique that emulates the look and feel of the original paintings, visitors are given a chance to engage with the artwork in ways that were never before possible: seeing every detail, every brushstroke, and every color of the artist’s 34 frescoes. Each image is accompanied by informative signage, and audio guides are available to rent for an even more in-depth experience.
This globally successful exhibition is an innovative and unique interpretation of Michelangelo’s timeless masterpiece. Whether visitors have already been to the Sistine Chapel or not, everyone can admire the artwork up close, at their own pace, and with the ability to capture photographic memories of this iconic work.
You will not find many people that are unfamiliar with michelangelo’s famous fresco, “the creation of man,” in which the two outstretched index fingers seem like they could move at any moment. the simple structure of the painting symbolizes nothing less than the origin of humanity, the ensoulment of the first man by god. it forms part of the wall and ceiling frescoes in the sistine chapel that brought michelangelo buonarroti worldwide renown.
While visitors to the Vatican Museums in Rome can marvel at these frescoes only from afar, “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition” now offers the opportunity to observe these masterpieces close up, in the form of reproductions. The exhibition takes us up onto the scaffolding during restoration for a new perspective. After centuries of use, the paintings in the Chapel had become covered in such a thick layer of dust and soot, and as a result of this deterioration the brilliance of the original luminous colors had all but disappeared. It was not until the comprehensive restoration work carried out in the 1980s and 1990s that the true richness of color in the wall and ceiling frescoes could once more be observed. The exhibition illustrates the restoration and allows us to view the monumental paintings from a distance of only 4 meters, as opposed to the usual 20 meters. “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel” thus brings an entirely new perspective to this work by Michelangelo and acts as a form of art in its own right.
The Story of Creation
Michelangelo used the 800 m² surface to showcase his entire talent as a painter. His heavily-populated compositions recount events from the Old and New Testaments, from the story of creation to the “Last Judgment.” Michelangelo was however loath to accept this task, as he saw himself more as a sculptor than a painter, and had come to Rome in 1505 to sculpt a mausoleum for Pope Julius II. The following year’s commission to paint the Sistine Chapel therefore came at an inconvenient time for Michelangelo. Julius II originally wanted the theme to be the Twelve Apostles.
Michelangelo however found this proposal “poor” and instead decided on a complex ceiling fresco composed of numerous different scenes.
The paintings and their sequence have intrigued people to this day. Michelangelo painted the story of Creation, across nine panels on the shallow barrel vault. However, whereas such a cycle typically begins with the creation of the Earth and humanity and ends with the fall of man and banishment from Paradise, Michelangelo includes scenes from the life of Noah. Additional Biblical scenes, representations of prophets, and the sibyls of antiquity also make their appearance. A painted architecture frames the images and lends a clear structure to the dynamic ensemble.
On November 1, 1512, after 4 ½ years work, the ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were solemnly inaugurated. Michelangelo achieved this accomplishment largely without assistance and under difficult conditions. Around 20 years later, in 1536, he returned to Rome. Clements VII, the successor of Pope Julius II, wanted a redesign of the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo then worked until 1541 creating the “Last Judgment” with Jesus in the center as the great judge separating humanity into the chosen and the damned.
The Italian Renaissance has given us great music as well as great art. But the music remains little known, and the great solo songs when performed have been let down by a stilted, over-literal and under-expressive performance style. In our video, which presents one of the classic songs of the period, we adopt a very different and new approach, taking our cues from the Renaissance itself. Michelangelo, who wrote the words of the song, could be as eloquent with the pen as he was with brush and chisel and was highly regarded as a poet by his contemporaries. He met regularly with his circle of other accomplished writers and poets. I imagine a sort of Poets’ Round Table in the Eternal City. The poem to which the song is set – Come harò donque ardire (‘How, then, will I ever have the nerve’) – appears in a songbook alongside works by Petrarch and other celebrated poets.
Written around the time he completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling and was creating his statue of the Dying Slave or ‘slave to love’, as I see it, his words are as passionate as his painting or sculpture. They are a lament for unrequited love, the poet abandoning hope and sinking into resignation and despair. The composer of the song, Bartolomeo Tromboncino, was one of the leading star musicians of his time, a singer and lutenist serving such prominent patrons as Isabela d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia. The song itself, one of the most affecting works of its kind in the early Italian repertoire, conveys a remarkable depth of personal feeling.
Our performance style in the video is based specifically on the musical treatises and related sources of the early Renaissance, when singing was regarded not as an isolated art but essentially as a variety of persuasive speech. Singers of the period – unlike those of more recent times – modelled their art on that of the actor or orator, giving their words the natural emphasis and rhythm of actual speech (and heightening their effect by appropriate gestures). That not only meant avoiding monotonous rhythms and artificial accents but also, more positively, taking liberties with the scores, varying the tempo, adding nuances, stretching and swelling notes in expressive ways, emphasising certain words, downplaying others, always ensuring that every syllable came across clearly. This creates an irregular vocal rhythm which contrasts expressively with the underlying metric pulse of the song provided by the lute. In the video Kate Macoboy has a way with the words of the song that reflects that of a native Italian speaker, projecting the words of her song with flair, freedom and directness. We discover that a singer’s toolbox was extensive when we read descriptions from writers of the dramatic passion rendered in inflaming the listener’s mind as well as moving their emotions.
Here are some examples of her Renaissance-inspired workings. In the second line of the poem, beginning ‘Senza voi’ (‘without you’), ‘voi’ falls on a weak beat, she deliberately comes in early, ahead of the lute and gives the important word the emphasis it needs. Another example is in the fifth line, beginning ‘Che’l miser’ (that miserable’). The first word, ‘che’, is given a long note and rests in a prominent position in the score, but ‘miser’ is one of the most important words in the line requiring emphatic delivery. The singer shortens the unimportant written note, ‘che’. It serves as a pickup note to ‘miser’ where Kate accents, swells and lengthens the first syllable of this word, cutting short the second, as in normal speech. In this case, notated rhythms needed adjustments. Nuances like these recur throughout the song and are the key to its expressive effect.
The Arab Hall at Leighton House is similar in size to the rooms where this music was performed in Michelangelo’s time and has a suitably modest yet sympathetic acoustic. It provides a splendid yet intimate setting for a singer and lutenist to express this elegant, heartfelt song.
Robert Meunier played guitar in a band in Toronto before turning to formal musical studies at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He obtained a lute performance diploma from the Royal College of Music in London, UK. As lutenist and musical director, he has been playing and researching early Italian Renaissance song and lute solo repertoire for over thirty years. He has taught the lute, recorded for CD releases with Chandos, CRD and BIS and radio and television broadcasts for CBC and BBC, including programmes for BBC Radio 3 on Tromboncino and Isabela d’Este. He has performed throughout Europe and North America both as a soloist and with specialist ensembles including performances at many of the major music festivals. Over the years he has developed an interest in the connections between music, the visual arts and poetry. In particular, he has performed in the intimate settings of ‘Old Master Galleries’ both in the solo lute song and lute solo repertoires. He has written articles for classical music magazines, articles regarding his and Kate’s new approach to Italian Renaissance songs with references to their acclaimed music video of Michelangelo’s madrigal, as featured in the full length feature film, ‘Michelangelo – Love and Death’ for Seventh Art Productions. In recent years, he has worked with Robert Toft, a world renowned expert on historical performance practices of vocal music who has published five books on the subject.
Kate Macoboy, Australian soprano, is a highly experienced ensemble singer and soloist. Specialising in Baroque and Renaissance music, she graduated from the University of Western Australia with honours. In 2010, she completed a Master in Advanced Vocal Ensemble Studies under scholarship at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. She performs regularly in the UK, Europe and Australia with several leading ensembles, including, Ars Nova Copenhagen and Chamber Choir Ireland (under the direction of Paul Hillier). She has had European engagements with The Bach Consort and Danish Radio Vokalensemblet and a tour to Hong Kong with the Grammy award winning group, Theatre of Voices. Most recently, she has recorded solo works for Theatre of Voices for a CD entitled, ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ and performed in a world premiere of Johann Johannsson’s piece ‘Last and First Men’ at the Manchester International Festival which also featured Tilda Swinton’s elegiac narration into a poetic meditation on memory, loss and the idea of Utopia.
And you can get the Michelangelo’s Madrigal CD from the gift shop at the exhibition or from their MM Mvsic website…
(Antico/Giunta) Come harò donque ardire
senza voi mai, mio ben, tenermi’n vita,
s’io non posso, al partir, chiedermi aita ?
Quei singulti, quei pianti e quei sospiri
che ‘1 miser cor a voi acompagniorno,
madonna, duramente dimostrorno
la mia propinqua morte e’ mei martyri.
Ma se ver è che, per absentia, mai
Mia fidel servitù cada in oblio,
II cor come presago di mei guai,
per adimpir el vostro van desio,
vi fa lexequie del sepulchro mio.
How, then, will I ever have the nerve
without you, my beloved, to keep hold on life,
if at our parting, I cannot find help within myself?
Those sobs, those cries, those sighs that accompanied my miserable heart to you,
my lady, harshly confirmed my approaching death and my torments.
But if it is true that once I am gone my faithful servitude may be forgotten, my heart, anticipating my afflictions, to fulfill your empty wish,
prepares the funerary rituals for my grave.
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition. A life-size, up-close, never-before-seen perspective of the iconic masterpieces.
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