Today, the Opéra Comique in Paris presents Les Éclairs, an opera composed by Philippe Hersant, with a libretto by Jean Echenoz after his own novel.
It is the composer's third opera after Le Château des Carpathes (Montpellier, October 27, 1993) and Le Moine noir (Leipzig, May 6, 2006).
When he arrives in New York in 1884, Gregor is inhabited by his visions. He wants to develop the uses of electricity in a revolutionary way. But science interests him more than profit. Industrialists loot him and mislead his inventions. He will take refuge in the spectacle of lightning and the company of birds.(freely adapted from the Opéra Comique website)
The cast includes baritone Jean-Christophe Lanièce (Gregor), mezzo Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur (Ethel), tenor François Rougier (Norman), soprano Elsa Benoit (Betty), baritone André Heyboer (Edison) and baritone Jérôme Boutillier (Parker). Ariane Matiakh conducts the Aedes Chorus and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Clément Hervieu-Léger directs.
The performance should last 1 hour and 45 minutes, no interval.
