TEARS INTO LIGHT

Eugénie De Mey – voice
Vardan Hovanissian – duduk
Sofie Vanden Eynde – artistic direction & lute
Jo Thielemans – live electronics

Texts: among others Fleur Pierets
Music: among others John Dowland and Vladimir Gorlinsky
Visual art: Ria Verhaeghe

TEASER

Tears into Light is a multidisciplinary performance that brings together early music, contemporary composition, text, and care practices in a profound reflection on melancholy, mourning, and resilience. Departing from John Dowland’s Lachrymae or Seven Tears, artistic director Sofie Vanden Eynde develops a new sonic landscape in which lute, voice, duduk, and live electronics enter into dialogue. Composer Vladimir Gorlinsky reinterprets Dowland’s iconic masterpiece, weaving it together with Armenian traditions and a contemporary sensibility.

The artistic concept took shape during a long-term research and participatory process in a residential care home and a palliative day centre. In intimate conversations, residents and guests shared their insights on loss, regret, consolation, darkness, and unexpected light. These voices became not only an emotional backbone but also guided the dramaturgical and musical choices. New texts by Fleur Pierets, together with Sufi poetry by, among others, Hafez, anchor their experiences in the performance—literally audible in the soundscape and figuratively present in the emotional undercurrent.

The sound of the duduk—an instrument traditionally accompanying mourning rituals—becomes a bridge between times and traditions. Its whispering tone blends with Elizabethan melancholy and new compositions, embodying the journey from darkness to light. What began as an unfinished invitation to create a programme around Armenia thus grew into a profound exploration of how grief, history, and hope intertwine.

The dramaturgy approaches melancholy as a form of attentiveness and inner space, inspired by thinkers such as Robert Burton, the School of Night, and mystical currents within Sufism. Melancholy appears here not as heaviness or stagnation, but as a necessary slowing down in which reflection, empathy, and transformation can emerge:
“O morning breeze, bring me news of dawn…” (Hafez).

Visual artist Ria Verhaeghe adds a subtle yet meaningful visual layer. Her work, in which anonymous photographs are reread and transformed, offers a poetic reflection on how history, memory, and identity continue to be rewritten—a process that closely resonates with the musical reinterpretations within Tears into Light.

The performance addresses an audience open to stillness, sensory depth, and meaningful artistic experiences. Tears into Light fits within programmes focusing on early music, contemporary music, ritual, vulnerability, contemplation, well-being, and art in relation to care. Its aim is to create a space where darkness is not excluded but approached with attention—where music, art, and human stories together open a path toward light:
“O heart, do not be afraid of the long night… for at the deepest point of night, dawn is closest.” (Hafez)