Julia Bullock delivers a magnetic performance in "Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine," a 100-minute piece developed by the soprano, composer Tyshawn Sorey, poet Claudia Rankine and director Peter Sellars. But the work struggles with pacing and emotional connection, according to a Guardian review of its UK premiere at Barbican Hall in London.
The piece functions as a discourse on racial discrimination in Josephine Baker's era and today, rather than a conventional tribute. Bullock sings and speaks alongside six musicians, including Sorey on piano, drum kit and percussion, plus electric guitar, violin, alto flute, saxophone and bassoon. They perform from a platform lit by a saturated square of bright colour.
Sorey's compositions deconstruct and reform Baker's songs, mostly slowing them down. A reworking of "Bye Bye Blackbird" features guitar and saxophone styled like a 1980s power ballad. A later version of "Je t'aime" gains highlife flavour from the guitar. The score, however, becomes bloated, and instrumental episodes extend the piece rather than unify it. Ear-splitting bass drum and tam tam signal emotional peaks.
The reviewer notes that heavy microphone amplification works against intimacy. Bullock and Sorey have performed versions of the work across the US and elsewhere over the past decade.
The piece examines Baker's life across multiple dimensions. She was born into poverty, became the best-paid stage star in Europe, worked as a spy for the French resistance and fought for civil rights. The reviewer questions whether her career as an entertainer would have survived this form of artistic meditation.