Today : world première of Luca Francesconi's 'Trompe-la-mort' in Paris - and programme book

Today, the Opéra national de Paris presents the world première performance of Luca Francesconi's new opera, Trompe-la-mort with a libretto in French by the composer after Honoré de Balzac.

 (c) G. Zucchiatti

Luca Francesconi has already composed several operas, including Ballata (Brussels, 2002), Gesualdo considered as a murderer (Amsterdam, 2004) and Quartett (Milano, 2011)

Fathers and sons. The Revolution committed a double parricide by decapitating two symbolic patriarchal figures : the King and God. Devoid of its substance, post-revolutionary society saw Paris under assault from ambitious, self-serving characters from the provinces in search of success and recognition. Some of them, like Lucien de Rubempré, would fail, while others, like Eugène de Rastignac, would succeed. They both embody two faces of a young generation eager to conquer the future but which had no other choice than to pledge allegiance to the financial order. It was the father's retribution : in the end, the young generation was used, bled dry and finally sacrificed on the altar of power and money. (reproduced from the programme book)

The cast includes baritone Laurent Naouri (Jacques Collin / Carlos Herrera / Trompe-la-mort), soprano Julie Fuchs (Esther), tenor Cyrille Dubois (Lucien de Rubempré), bass Marc Labonnette (Le baron de Nucingen), contralto Ildiko Komlosi (Asie), tenor Philippe Talbot (Eugène de Rastignac) and mezzo Béatrice Uria-Monzon (La comtesse de Sérizy). Susanna Mälkki conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra national de Paris. Guy Cassiers directs.

The performance should last about 2 hours, with no intermission. It will take place at the Palais Garnier. the opera will be recorded by France Musique for later broadcast.

The score is published by Ricordi. According to the publisher's website, the required orchestra is the following :

- 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 English horns, 1 clarinet piccolo, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 saxophone, 2 bassoons, 2 contrabassoons ;
- 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba ;
- percussion, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba ;
- accordion, celesta, piano, electronic keyboard ;
- strings.

I have received the programme book yesterday.

It is a 156 pages book. It contains :

- the complete cast ;
- in brief ;
- synopsis and characters ;
- timeline ;
- Balzac visionnaire, by composer Luca Francesconi ;
- "Dites, qu'avez-vous vu ?", by Sarah Barbedette ;
- Ce qu'il en coûte de désirer, by Alexandre Péraud ;
- Le Capital du XXIe siècle ou la revanche de Vautrin, excerpt from an interview with Thomas Piketty (2014) ;
- Le passé dévore l'avenir, by Erwin Jans ;
- complete libretto ;
- black and white photos of rehearsals ;
- biographies of the artists with blach and white headshots.

The programme is in French, with English translations of 'in brief', 'synopsis and characters' and 'timeline'.
It is my 450th programme book. All scanned covers are there.