Come for the journey through time, stay for the emotional ride
Live entertainment is gone! Concerts are now only accessible in digital form, and your home-immersion equipment seems as frustrating as it is limited.
So, when you are offered the chance to participate in a series of mini pop-up concerts in unlikely places, you think that there might be a way out of the abysmal boredom that has invaded your daily life.
At that moment, Aéron, Lowen and Nessia – a pianist and two singers – talkative and slightly obsessive, immerse you in an operatic setlist that is by turns fiery, sentimental, and also politically engaged…
You will then rediscover the pleasure of being swept away by a musical experience, exploring the history of opera from Monteverdi to Aboulker, via Bizet, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Handel and many more! Behind the scenes of the workshop: The trigger principle: Caroline Adoumbou and Fanny Mouren, the artistic directors of the Ensemble Brins de Voix, have long sung the great arias (and some lesser-known ones) of opera.
And they had a question for me that was only seemingly simple: how to make it into a show, rather than a recital? With these specifications, I imagined a "culture fiction" show that takes us to 2050, to a time when the live voice has almost become a legend, like that of Orpheus, the mythological poet-singer.
The best part: Entrusting the direction to Bernard Rozet for his sense of acting and comedy. The challenge: To compose a bouquet with roses, lilies, daisies, foliage, and begonias without it being disparate or incongruous.
Or, to put it another way, to playfully combine Puccini, Mozart, Monteverdi, Rossini, Offenbach, Aboulker, Bizet, Handel, Verdi, and Wagner! The pitfall to avoid: Creating a grumpy, reactionary show in "things were better in the old days" mode. The distinguishing element: A dystopian comedy…
It is a show set in the future, which is neither dystopian nor utopian, but rather takes the side of irony and a smile to consider the future of so-called classical music.
The promise: Orphée 2050 blends opera with feminism, gender, politics, narrative, society, customs, and even sociology! The artistic team: Caroline Adoumbou and Lucie André, vocals and acting / Maxime Alberti, piano and acting
[As part of Interférences and the Avignon OFF Festival]