Orphée et Eurydice

The visual urgency that runs through the theatre of Romeo Castellucci finds its own expressive field in this operatic production. The Fondazione del Teatro Grande presents the full screening of the film Orphée et Eurydice, a work produced in 2014 by La Monnaie in Brussels. The myth of Orpheus translates into a reflection on the abysmal condition of the coma. Orphée et Eurydice being in film form makes it possible to combine the looping of the music performed in the La Monnaie theatre with the Inkendaal rehabilitation centre chamber where Els, a young woman with Locked-in Syndrome, is admitted. Gluck’s mythology and music become mirrors in which human frailty is reflected, without voyeurism, artistically recognizing “the duty to think about the human condition, even the most extreme” (Romeo Castellucci).

Romeo Castellucci, director, set, lighting and costume designer, is known all over the world for having given life to theatre based on a complete view of the arts and orientated at an integral perception of opera. Author of numerous theoretical essays, his scenic writing overturns the precedence of literature, making the theatre a complex form of art expressed in an understandable language as music, sculpture, painting or architecture. His performances were produced by the most prestigious theatres, festivals and art centres of the world, and shown in over fifty countries. The most important international opera houses have also presented his multi-award-winning pieces, including Parsifal (2011), Orphée et Eurydice (2014), Moses und Aron (2015), Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (2017) and Tannhäuser (2017). He was also awarded the title of Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002, in charge of the Directorate of the Venice Biennale Theatre in 2005 and nominated “associate artist” of the Avignon Festival in 2008. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the Venice Biennale received by Castellucci in 2013, as well as the “Portrait Biennale” that the Festival d’Automne in Paris dedicated to him in the 2014 and 2015 seasons definitively name him as one of the greatest artists of our time.

“Fabulous and overwhelming.” La Libre

 

Credits

Music Christoph Willibald Gluck

Adaptation Hector Berlioz (1859)

Direction, set, lighting and costume design Romeo Castellucci

Musical direction Hervé Niquet

Artistic collaboration Silvia Costa

Dramaturgy Piersandra di Matteo, Christian Longchamp

Video / stedycam Vincent Pinckaers

Choir master Martino Faggiani

La Choraline chorus master Benoît Giaux

with Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Orfeo), Sabine Deiveilhe (Eurydice) and Fanny Dupont (Love)

 

Symphony Orchestra and Coro de La Monnaie

members of the youth choir La Monnaie La Choraline

 

First violin Eugenia Ryabinina

Film director Myriam Hoyer

Production of the show La Monnaie – De Munt & Wiener Festwochen

a project in collaboration with Wiener Festwochen, on the initiative of La Monnaie – De Munt

production of the film La Monnaie – De Munt

© La Monnaie – De Munt, 2014

We thank Aurore Aubouin, Cristina Ventrucci, Konstancja Dunin-Wąsowicz

photo © Bernd Uhlig