L’autre hiver
Verlaine, Rimbaud, a ghostly ship trapped in the ice: an amazing opera where the flesh is conjoined with technological phastasmagorias. A theatrical poem where the incredible becomes possible.
Poets drifting apart
If in the history of the FTA Denis Marleau is the artist invited most often, it is because each of his works surprises with his innovations, as is the case with this 21st century opera where the urges of the flesh are conjoined with technological phastasmagorias. With his associate of long standing the writer Normand Chaurette, plus the composer Dominique Pauwels, two incandescent sopranos and six musicians, he and his accomplice Stéphanie Jasmin have created a surreal world. A theatrical poem where the incredible becomes possible.
On a boat immobilized by ice where even the passengers stand inexplicably frozen, the terrible lovers Verlaine and Rimbaud are reunited. But ambiguity drifts round these two mythical figures of poetry, and only childhood wounds are a foregone conclusion. This world where music and video evoke in startling fashion the sea, and the inexorable glaciation of both minds and nature, gives birth to a spellbinding work.
Produced by LOD Muziektheater (Ghent) + Mons 2015 Capitale européenne de la culture + Manège.Mons + UBU compagnie de création
Created by Normand Chaurette + Denis Marleau and Stéphanie Jasmin + Dominique Pauwels
Composer and sound designer Dominique Pauwels
Libretto Normand Chaurette
Direction, set design and video by Denis Marleau and Stéphanie Jasmin
Interprétation / Performed by Musiques Nouvelles
Conductor Filip Rathé
Singers Lieselot de Wilde (Arthur Rimbaud) + Marion Tassou (Paul Verlaine)
Lighting design Éric Soyer
Costume design Greta Goiris, Judith Stokart
Video edition and projection Pierre Laniel
Masks sculpting Claude Rodrigue
Make-up and hairdressing Angelo Barsetti
Recorded choirs Coro Gulbenkian conducted by Clara Coelho + Chœur des Enfants de La Monnaie conducted by Aldo Plateau
Assistant director Thierry Mousset
Assistant to set construction Stéphane Longpré
Co-produced by Festival TransAmériques + enoa (Aix-en-Provence) + Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg + deSingel (Antwerp) + Maison de la Culture d’Amiens + Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon) + National Arts Centre French Theatre (Ottawa) + La Rose des Vents – Scène nationale Lille – Métropole Villeneuve d’Ascq + Musiques Nouvelles (Mons)
With the support of Stad Gent + La Monnaie (Brussels)
Presented by Hyatt Regency Montréal with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International + Théâtre français du Centre National des Arts du Canada (Ottawa)
This show is part of Printemps numérique 2016 de Montréal.
Premiered at Manège.Mons, on May 7, 2015
Normand Chaurette (Montreal)
With plays such as Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j’avais 19 ans, Fragments d’une lettre d’adieu lus par des géologues and Les reines, the playwright Normand Chaurette made his mark in theatre with his exceptional use of language, his originality and his dramatic structures, plus the depth and reach of his thought.
Denis Marleau (Montreal)
Founded in 1982, co-directed by Denis Marleau and, since 2000, by Stéphanie Jasmin, UBU compagnie de création has succeeded in revitalizing the concept of art theatre by creating over fifty cutting edge works featuring an intermingling of radical writing, the visual arts, new technologies and an approach that is playful yet demands much from the actors.
Stéphanie Jasmin (Montreal)
Founded in 1982, co-directed by Denis Marleau and, since 2000, by Stéphanie Jasmin, UBU compagnie de création has succeeded in revitalizing the concept of art theatre by creating over 50 cutting edge works featuring an intermingling of radical writing, the visual arts, new technologies and an approach that is playful yet demands much from the actors.
Dominique Pauwels (Ghent)
A major artist on the Flemish music and theatre scene, the composer Dominique Pauwels collaborated with the choreographer Jan Lauwers and the director Guy Cassiers in the creation of Sang et Roses, presented in the Honour Courtyard at the Papal Palace in Avignon.
