Yesterday, I attended the first performance in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet) of Le Petit prince, the last opera composed by French composer Michaël Levinas. Since its world première in Lausanne last November, The opera has been performed in Lille and Geneva. After Paris, performances will follow in Liège.
Lasting about 80 minutes (no intermission), the opera is a masterpiece of orchestration, one of the most interesting vocal score I have heard in years. Conceived for an orchestra of 40 musicians (including tubax, harp, 2 keyboards, percussion, strings, woodwinds and brass), the score is always compelling, with various styles adapted for each character. The switchman scene is particularly fascinating.
The young singers are very convincing in their multiple roles. Here is the cast : Jeanne Crousaud (Le Petit prince, soprano), Vincent Lièvre-Picard (L'Aviateur, tenor), Catherine Trottmann (La Rose, mezzo), Rodrigo Ferreira (Le Renard / Le Serpent, countertenor), Alexandre Diakoff (Le Roi / L'Ivrogne / L'Allumeur de réverbères / L'Aiguilleur, bass baritone), Benoît Capt (Le Vaniteux / Le Financier / Le Géographe, baritone) and Céline Soudain (La Rose multiple, soprano). The main parts didn't seem particularly easy to deal with, but all the singers did a great job.
The staging by Lilo Baur is a very light and bright one, perfecty suited to the faity-tale aspect of the story. The Orchestre de Picardie is conducted by Arie van Beek.
At least four operas had already been composed after this novel, in Russian (Lev Knipper, 1964), in German (Michael Horwath, 1985 and Nikolaus Schapfl, 2003) and in English (Rachel Portman, 2003). More than 70 years after the book was written, it was about time a French opera was composed !
The program book published by the Théâtre du Châtelet contains :
- complete cast and crew ;
- "Waiting for curtain-up", in French and English ;
- synopsis in French and English ;
- an interview with the composer from December 2014 ;
- an interview with the director from early November 2014 ;
- an article on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ;
- biographies of the artists and several color photos of the production.
The opera is to be broadcast by France Musique, on Monday April 6th.
No comments:
Post a Comment