Gounod's La Nonne Sanglante (The Bloody Nun)
David Bobée (stage director), Laurence Equilbey (conductor) — With Michael Spyres (Rodolphe), Jodie Devos (Arthur), Jérôme Boutillier (Count Luddorf), Marion Lebègue (The Nun)...
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Cast
David Bobée — Stage director
Michael Spyres — Rodolphe
Vannina Santon — Agnès
Marion Lebègue — The nun
Jérôme Boutillier — Count Luddorf
Jodie Devos — Arthur
Jean Teitgen — Peter the Hermit
Luc Bertin-Hugault — The Baron of Moldaw
Enguerrand de Hys — Fritz, the night watchman
Olivia Doray — Anna
Pierre-Antoine Chaumien — Arnold
Chœur Accentus
Christophe Grapperon — Assistant conductor, Chorus Master
Laurence Equilbey — Conductor
Program notes
In a medieval Bohemia troubled by hereditary conflicts, Rodolphe defies his father and challenges his ancestors out of love for the rival clan’s daughter, offered as a pledge of peace to his own brother. But Agnès seems alarmingly like the ghost who haunts Moldaw’s castle...
Loosely adapted from Matthew Lewis's The Monk, a Gothic novel in vogue among the Romantics, the libretto for La Nonne sanglante on which Gounod composed his opera was the work of legendary librettist Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. The opera’s modest but underwhelming success during a period of crisis for the Paris Opera contributed to the sacking of Paris Opera director Nestor Roqueplan, whose successor François Crosnier called the opera “filth” and cancelled the rest of its 1854 run.
At the Opéra Comique in 2018, Gounod’s opera comes roaring back to live thanks to three great enthusiasts of Romantic torments: renowned conductor Laurence Equilbey, stage director David Bobée, and tenor Michael Spyres, an outstanding Rodolphe. The production highlights the medieval character of the libretto while never coming off as dated—the weary warriors and wild women almost call to mind Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. A black and white world, stained red by the Nun’s blood-soaked dress…
