Marc-André Dalbavie’s The Satin Slipper
Stanislas Nordey (stage director), Marc-André Dalbavie (conductor) — With Luca Pisaroni (Don Rodrigue), Ève-Maud Hubeaux (Doña Prouhèze)...
Thank you for your understanding.
Cast
Marc-André Dalbavie — Music, conductor
Raphaèle Fleury — Libretto based on a play by Paul Claudel
Éditions musicales LACROCH'
Stanislas Nordey — Stage director
Emmanuel Clolus — Set designer
Raoul Fernandez — Costume designer
Philippe Berthomé — Lighting
Stéphane Pougnand — Video
Daniele Guaschino — Sound creation
Loïc Touzé — Choreographer
Claire Ingrid Cottanceau — Artistic collaboration on stage
Raphaèle Fleury — Dramaturgy
Ève-Maud Hubeaux — Doña Prouhèze
Luca Pisaroni — Don Rodrigue de Manacor
Marc Labonnette — Le père jésuite, le roi d'Espagne, Saint Denys d'Athènes, Don Almagro, deuxième soldat
Yann Beuron — Don Pélage
Nicolas Cavallier — Don Balthazar, Saint Nicolas, Frère León
Program notes
A Paris Opera commission, inspired by Paul Claudel’s celebrated stage play— from the spectacular Palais Garnier!
The Satin Slipper is a tale of forbidden love between Doña Prouhèze (played by the marvelous Ève-Maud Hubeaux) and Don Rodrigo (the great Luca Pisaroni). Though the duo’s love is the plot’s chief concern, however, the two rarely appear onstage together: Doña Prouhèze, indeed, seeks to save Don Rodrigo from an adulterous passion by pushing him to wander the world all throughout his life—the work takes place across decades and continents, creating an intense and vertiginous atmosphere that draws the spectator in little by little.
For composer and conductor Marc-André Dalbavie, Claudel’s play is utterly singular: lasting nine hours, it is the product of diverse influences, from Spanish theatre (in its format, spread out over four “days”) to Japanese Noh (in the variety of genres, tragedy coexisting with levity, even comedy). The language is musical, the framing and characters grandiose, and the composer set himself the task of adapting the source text while maintaining the uncommonly long running time—an indispensable part of the experience, in his view: “This story cannot be told in one or two hours,” Dalbavie says, “it takes time to make a unified whole out of such divergent styles and genres.” He then composed the music (incorporating traditional instruments from many different nations and cultures to evoke the world travels of Don Rodrigo), while librettist Raphaèle Fleury set the text, a Herculean feat of adaptation.
This world premiere by the Paris Opera represents the third installment in their French literature cycle begun in 2017. Under the baton of Marc-André Dalbavie himself, the impeccable Paris Opera Orchestra allows the sublime soloists to shine in a production for the ages.
Photo © Elisa Haberer / Opéra national de Paris
This is just one of hundreds of stunning operas available on medici.tv, the web's leading classical music streaming platform!
