Cécile McLorin Salvant. Photo by Shawn Michael Jones. Image courtesy of the artist.
On February 24 and 25, the Walker Art Center will premiere Ogresse: Envisioned, a new multimedia work that explores power, gender, race, body diversity, and love through music, song, and immersive animated projections. The darkly humorous and poignant fairy tale is driven by the acclaimed, genre-defying score and 15-song cycle composed and performed by Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist, composer, and visual artist Cécile McLorin Salvant and a 13-piece chamber orchestra, arranged and conducted by Darcy James Argue. For its presentation of the musical work, the Walker commissioned Salvant and Belgian animator Lia Bertels to bring the narrative to life through striking large-scale, projected imagery. The forthcoming performance marks the first time the multimedia visual components will be shared with audiences. Ticket information can be found on the Walker website.
Over the course of her illustrious career, Salvant has developed a passion for storytelling and working across a wide range of musical forms, including jazz, vaudeville, blues, baroque, and folk. The development of Ogresse, which combines folk, classical, jazz, and broadway-influenced music into a new seamless whole, beautifully captures her distinct approach and challenges preconceived musical boundaries. The concert version of Ogresse first premiered in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim. With Ogresse: Envisioned, Salvant embraces the full spectrum of her creative vision, developing new visual components that enhance the overall impact of the story and experience.
Ogresse is in part inspired by a painting in Salvant’s apartment of a Haitian female Goddess giving birth to the world as well as by the true story of Sarah Baartman (stage-named “the Hottentot Venus”), a South African woman who was exhibited in Europe as a freak due to the shape of her body and who was later embalmed and displayed in a museum until the 1970s. Drawing on these inspirations as well as Caribbean folklore, gothic fairy tales, and her own bracing imagination, Salvant created the story of Ogresse—an outcast, mythical creature who lives in the forest on the outskirts of a small town. The 80-minute musical event traces Ogresse’s experiences with the people from the town and speaks to her own journey through power, beauty, and self-conception. Although fictitious, the narrative of Ogresse is deeply relevant and resonate in ongoing contemporary dialogues about racism, sexism, colonialism, and the dynamics of power.
“We are thrilled to premiere this major new musical-visual-digital artwork by Cecile, long known for her exquisite vocal and compositional talents, but not yet as well known for her visual and interdisciplinary artistry,” said Philip Bither, McGuire Director and Senior Curator, Performing Arts at the Walker. “This is the largest commission in the Performing Arts Department’s history and represents a bold and essential vision, musically and visually.”
The Walker is recognized for its multidisciplinary program and its collaborative work with artists to create new and expansive projects. Additionally, over the past two decades, the institution has carved out a distinct role within the landscape of jazz by encouraging and supporting experimentation among artists, allowing them to push the genre into the future with new approaches. The development of Ogresse: Envisioned encapsulates this defining institutional vision and speaks to the incredible work that can be produced when institutions and artists come together.