In Coup Fatal the counter-tenor Serge Kakudji, together with an orchestra of 13 musicians from Kinshasa, is engaged with the repertoire of various baroque composers. The original music is enriched with the diversity of the musicians. Around the vocal parts of Serge Kakudji, a whole new contemporary universe is created, both in music and image. This new music integrates in a natural and exuberant way the baroque phrases with traditional and popular Congolese music, rock and jazz. The Brussels composer Fabrizio Cassol and guitar player Rodriguez Vangama are the musical directors, while director Alain Platel and dancer Romain Guion (C(H)OEURS etc.) search for a theatrical form together with the team. The set is designed in collaboration with the artist Freddy Tsimba. In Kinshasa he creates huge, disturbing sculptures of cartridge cases which he collects in Congolese war zones. Coup Fatal is inspired by the grand gestures of the perky ‘sapeurs’, the dandies of Kinshasa. No need to be ironical, the exuberance doesn’t have to be reduced. Against a background of car-tridge cases, movements have to be loud and big, the rawness provoking. Rather than a tribute to baroque music, Coup Fatal is a tribute to the unrelenting elegance of the Congolese.

Genesis of the project In July 2009 KVS organized a first arts festival in Kinshasa, centered around the final performances of Pitié!, the show in which the director Alain Platel and the composer Fabrizio Cassol worked together with the countertenor Serge Kakudji. After a long journey, the production at last came ‘home´ to Serge Kakudji’s native country. At the second edition of the festival (in the meantime baptised ‘Connexion Kin’) in 2010 KVS wished to program a recital of Serge Kakudji and therefore sought appropriate accompaniment. Paul Kerstens – coordinator of the Africa Project of KVS, who had worked in 2009 on the recording of Baloji’s Kinshasa Succursale – knew many creative and inventive musicians in Kinshasa: some focused on popular dance music and others played jazz and traditional music. He brought ten of them together and invited them to listen to the arias chosen by Serge. They were then asked a simple question: “Does this music say something to you, and are you interested in working with it?” They all responded with an enthusiastic “yes!” Each musician received a discman with the arias, and they then began to rehearse amongst themselves, without any interference from outside. Guitarist Rodriguez Vangama quickly be-came the musical leader of the project. Serge Kakudji arrived two weeks later, and they all worked together for another week. The result, a presentation held on 18 July 2010, was an overwhelming success. The group continued to work together in 2011 and 2012. The basis remained the same, but sev-eral changes were made to the line-up, likembes (thumb pianos) were added, and several times they worked with the slammer Alesh from Kisangani, who composed new recitatives. Fabrizio Cassol became involved as musical advisor. The group of Coup Fatal developed into a tight-knit orchestra. The project evolved over these years, and the different performances received more and more of a scenic character. A new, important step imposed itself: the project had everything necessary to grow into a full-fledged show. Alain Platel became aware of the project through the involve-ment of Fabrizio Cassol and the enthusiastic stories he heard from dramaturge Hildegard De Vuyst, and he immediately agreed to get involved in it. KVS and les ballets C de la B assumed responsibility for the production, and the creation of Coup Fatal could begin.

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Alain Platel, biography