In December, recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey told Limelight that a solo performance is not always the most exciting musical platform a musician can offer an audience.

Soliloquy – which premiered in 2019 and was scheduled to tour in 2020 – is Lacey’s solution for this; a solo recital serving as visual spectacle and a place for community. 

Genevieve Lacey: Soliloquy. Photo © PiaJohnson

Co-directed and choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek and Stephanie Lake, Soliloquy begins with Lacey on tenor recorder sitting alone in the centre of on-stage bleachers to perform the first of Telemann’s Twelve Fantasias for Solo Flute.

From the first few bars, the recorder wins my heart over the flute versions, with its sweet tone, idiosyncratic pitch bends and Lacey’s shimmering runs. Lacey plays without sheet music, entirely from memory, for the whole hour. A phenomenal player, she treats the material lightly and playfully.

She’s not alone for long. Soon she’s joined by Lake, who begins her performance lying down, with small hand moves. In the next break, 32 untrained dance participants join...