Leonardo Gracia Alarcon: "Theater is inseparable from music"
Founder of the Cappella Mediterranea, the Argentinian Leonardo Garcia Alarcon will direct two lyrical productions at the Palace of Versailles:
Il palazzo incantato
(
The Palace of spells
), by Rossi, and
Atys
, by Lully.
Meeting with a warm and passionate musician.
LE FIGARO.
- Do you have a different approach to an opera that has not been performed since its creation, like
Il palazzo incantato
, and a classic like
Atys
?
Leonardo GRACIA ALARCON.
-
Above all, it changes the relationship between the conductor and the soloists.
As soon as there is a recording, the singers are tempted to listen to this version and come up with ideas of tempo or articulation that I have to make them forget.
When you don't have a sound document, you only have the manuscript: this is the area where I feel most comfortable because the way is clear for the performer's imagination.
See also
Royal Opera of Versailles: "Everything for music!"
What does not prevent you from admiring the interpretation of
Atys
by William Christie, so fundamental for the baroque movement?
Of course, I admire him immensely, just like I idealize my grandfather, which doesn't mean I want to be him!
In opera, your direction seems to attach as much importance to the theater as to the music.
The two are inseparable, and I like to put myself at the service of the director's vision, which has a direct influence on my performance.
I had an unforgettable experience when I conducted
Les Indes galantes
, by Rameau, at the Opéra Bastille, then at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
In Paris, in Clément Cogitore's show,
Peaceful Forests
was staged in a festive way: my tempo and my dynamics were lively and joyful.
In Geneva, Lydia Steier had imagined a rain of ash after a nuclear disaster: I conducted adagio et pianissimo.
That a work thus takes on two such different faces in such a short time and with the same orchestra fascinates me.
Leonardo Garcia Alarcon: "I like to put myself at the service of the director's vision, which has a direct influence on my interpretation."
Francois Berthier
Is this possible if you have already started rehearsing with the orchestra and the singers before the director arrives?
I always want to meet the director well in advance. We have been talking to Angelin Preljocaj for eight months, who will stage
Atys
in Geneva and then in Versailles. I played the entire opera for him on the harpsichord and our exchanges were incredibly powerful because I discovered that he was nourished by vocal music and by the rhetoric of the text from which he draws his choreographic beat. Likewise, for
Il palazzo incantato
which I conducted in Dijon in December 2020, I had met Fabrice Murgia a year before, welcoming him to my home while I was directing
Les Indes galantes.
in Paris.
He designed a mind-blowing spectacle.
By presenting it behind closed doors, in full confinement, I had never imagined that this opera created in 1642, which speaks of confinement, could thus become contemporary, as if it had been composed for the Covid!
The room spoke louder than us.
Between the quintessence of Italian opera represented by Rossi and the emblem of French baroque embodied by Lully, don't you feel like you're making the big difference?
Not that much, because Lully was very familiar with Rossi's music, which he drew on. The miracle of Lully is that, in creating a classical art which is almost no longer baroque, he has not diluted the expressive force of Italian music. His great undertaking was to transform French prosody in depth through ornaments, if only to avoid this accentuation at the end of the word which is for an Italian the worst lack of taste! Remember that at the time of Monteverdi and Rossi, opera and Italian are synonymous: if we had spoken to them about a French opera, they would have laughed as much as if, to the Argentinian that I am, we were talking about a Brazilian tango… The difference is that Italian music is Dionysian, it accelerates, slows down, breaks: it is music of the extreme. Especially with Rossi,who loves excessiveness and monumentality. While Lully understood that the French needed measure and balance, hence his more Apollonian side.
You have discovered the manuscript of the
Palace of Spells
in the Vatican Library: is the Baroque conductor necessarily a musicologist?
We cannot separate the work of an interpreter and that of a researcher.
Manuscripts are a constant source of questioning, and no personal interpretation can be offered until they have been thoroughly studied.
When I move away from the original, what I'm never afraid to do, is always justified by studying the score.
"Le Palais des sortilèges": December 11 at 7 p.m. and 12 at 3 p.m. “Atys”: March 19 at 7 p.m., 20 at 3 p.m., 22 and 23 at 8 p.m.
Shirley and Dino send
Platée
and
Sleeping Beauty to
waltz
The duo sign an ambitious and joyful transposition, a hymn to tolerance imbued with poetry. Castle of Versailles
Their foray into the world of opera was only supposed to be a round trip. Thirteen years after the triumphant creation of their
King Arthur
in Montpellier, the comic duo Corinne and Gilles Benizio, alias Shirley and Dino, nevertheless continue to dynamite the classics (or the less classic) ... for our greatest happiness, and that by chef Hervé Niquet. Become their most fervent accomplice, ready to bow to all fantasies to furnish each of their changes of scenery or push a little further, with them, the taste for burlesque that animates them, this eternal lover of caf'conc 'shares with the two actors
"the same love for the Branquignols, the clown Grock or the Monty Python"
. However, he ended up converting them definitively to the pleasures of the lyrical genre. To the point that the latter now claim that they can no longer do without it. Everything had started in the most improbable of ways.
“After one of our duo performances, while Gilles was getting back to his motorbike, a big escogriffe approached him in these terms
:
“ I am a conductor. I just saw your show. Would you agree to stage an opera? ””
Recalls Corinne Benizio, still incredulous.
Since then, the trio have come a long way.
After their
King Arthur
revisited in Kaamelott fashion, a grandiose zany whose success has not yet been denied (as evidenced by his recent revivals at the Versailles Opera), the accomplices have debunked many other statues: Cervantes, with a
Don Quixote at the Duchess
, by Boismortier, hilarious with irreverence and burlesque daring;
Homer, with a
Belle Hélène
d'Offenbach stranded on the shores of surrealism;
Perrault, with a
Sleeping Beauty
(not that of Tchaikovsky, but that of Louis-Ferdinand Hérold) whose schoolboy humor would wake a dead man, and that they come out of his bed at Versailles this season.
Two years of hard work
Here they are now at Rameau, with a
Platée
which will be long overdue. The fruit of two years of hard work, this ambitious and joyful transposition of the myth into the real world, against a backdrop of slums and extravagant transvestites, a hymn to tolerance crossed by poetry à la Almodovar, finally arrives on the stage of the Royal Opera… That is just two years after having seen its momentum cut off by the health crisis. We can bet that the energy will be even more beautiful. Mainly carried by the admirable cast gathered for the occasion. Mathias Vidal in the lead, of course, in the caricatural role of Platée. But also Marie Perbost, whose “air of Folie” has already toured the world, or the charismatic Marie-Laure Garnier, a well-deserved revelation of the last victories of classical music, and to whom Hervé Niquet wrote a song of his own, especially for the occasion.
"Sleeping Beauty" on December 14th.
"Platée de Rameau" from May 18 to 22
Gaétan Jarry, the consecration
In "George Dandin", Lully's music brings "a sarcastic or counter-action look", underlines Gaétan Jarry.
Francois Berthier
Five years. This is how long it took for the Ensemble Marguerite Louise, founded by organist Gaétan Jarry, to fit into the French Baroque landscape. Five years of close and daring collaboration with Versailles, whose ensemble inaugurated the record label, by recording
Les Arts florissans
by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
in 2019
. So Gaétan Jarry readily concedes:
“We owe a lot to Laurent Brunner and to the support of Versailles. In the beginning, we were just a modest sacred music ensemble. It has enabled us to develop ambitious projects: the great motets by Rameau and Mondonville that we will give in December, or the Rameau recital with Mathias Vidal, our own Jean-Sébastien Bach, with which we will open our Versailles season on October 3. "
See also
Royal Opera of Versailles: Molière or the art of the total spectacle
Just like the
George Dandin
by Molière and Lully, which they recorded and will take on the stage in January.
“Our flagship project when the health crisis arrived. Almost all the dates have been postponed and we find ourselves until 2022 with 80 tour dates,
explains Gaétan Jarry, with a mixture of excitement and relief.
Sublimated by the acting and staging of Michel Fau, Molière's piece accompanied by Lully's music had not been performed together since the 17th century. However, for George Dandin, Lully composed in a style very different from his other collaborations with Molière. His music is not interwoven with the action but takes the form of interludes that bring a sarcastic or counter-action look. "
Before finding Lully, however, he will embark on another scenic adventure entrusted by Laurent Brunner. This time at the desk of the Orchester de l'Opéra royal:
Les Noces de Figaro
, by Mozart, in a sumptuous classical staging by James Gray.
“The first time I'm going to measure myself with this monument. And with an exceptional set: Florie Valiquette, with whom we recorded a recital of comic-opera arias (performed at Versailles on March 16). But also Robert Gleadow, one of the best Figaro of the moment. And, in Barberine, a singer from our Marguerite Louise ensemble: Cécile Achille. Intense joy: I feel a natural spiritual bond with Mozart ”
, concludes the conductor…
“Triumphant branch”, October 3; “Les Noces de Figaro”, from November 27 to December 1; opéra-comique arias with Florie Valiquette, March 16; “George Dandin”, from January 4 to 8.
A new orchestral formation
The phalanx, led by Laurent Campellone, will accompany Placido Domingo (above) on April 2.
Fiorenzo Niccoli / Palace of Versailles
Provide the Royal Opera of Versailles with a non-permanent orchestral training of variable geometry, without an appointed conductor, but
"capable of playing on historical as well as modern instruments, and above all of building the best suited to the Royal Opera or the chapel. royal according to the era they are approaching ”
.
Such, according to its administrator Jean-Christophe Cassagnes, is the vocation of the Orchester de l'Opéra royal.
A label of its own
Born a few months before the first confinement for the French premiere of
Fantômes de Versailles
, by John Corigliano, the phalanx, which rotates with a base of twenty elite musicians and whose soloists vary according to the repertoire, allows the Château to set up its own projects off the beaten track…
"Without of course calling into question the presence of the many invited groups which today all have their place in Versailles"
, continues Jean-Christophe Cassagnes. Like Zingarelli's Romeo and Juliet, exhumed by the orchestra as part of the festivities around Napoleon, and which has just been released on CD. Because one of the strengths of the orchestra is also to have its own label.
"We are already at about ten recorded discs, most of which are accompanied by a recording on DVD."
Gaétan Jarry remembers his first recording session with the musicians.
“I was immediately struck by their ability to forge sound quickly. The fact that they work with very different chefs puts them on their toes. ”
Same impression with his twirling Polish colleague Stefan Plewniak, who will conduct notably in the pit
Les Quatre Saisons
choreographed by Marie-Geneviève Massé (in December), as well as Franco Fagioli's recital around Napoleon's castrato on October 2:
“They are from” a great reactivity, and know how to find the instrumental solution which meets our needs in terms of climate. ”
A versatility which makes it a royal setting for the voices. Whether it is to accompany pop stars like Mika (with whom the phalanx performed last year for the holiday season) or opera glories, like Placido Domingo, that the orchestra will accompany the April 2, under the baton of Laurent Campellone, in a repertoire ranging from Verdi to Massenet!
Angelin Preljocaj reviews the classics, from
Swan Lake
to
Atys
Angelin Preljocaj: "As a choreographer, I am attached to history as it is told by bodies."
joerg letz
Ready to fire?
The choreographer is used to heading for unknown lands.
Here he is squeezing the wind and presenting at Versailles his version of two heritage works:
Swan Lake
, written for his dancers from Aix-en-Provence, and
Atys
, Lully's opera-ballet that he directs and choreography for those of the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
The premiere will take place in this city on February 27.
Read also
Angelin Preljocaj at the mirror of Swan Lake
“Creation always generates constraints. Here, the difficulty is to face the shadow cast by these two works. And it is also to tackle a narrative framework. As a choreographer, I am attached to the story as it is told by the bodies, that of Siegfried, Odette or Atys ”
, underlines Angelin Preljocaj.
“The shadow cast by the Lake is Petipa: the different versions that have existed, the people who have seen several, even often once more.
What we are going to present will be put into perspective with this experience.
For Atys, there are not fifty versions but a very strong one, signed by William Christie, Jean-Marie Villégier and Francine Lancelot in 1987. I haven't seen her live, but I have watched the videos.
It seems to me that these three were trying to restore a baroque opera, to make a historical reconstruction of it.
It is not my idea.
The musical work is sublime.
She carries a rather rare emotional power.
The same beauty and delicacy of feelings that I used in Le Parc, inspired by Madame de Lafayette. ”
Black magic, white magic
Both the Lake
and
Atys
are woven with love and magic. White magic for
Le Lac
, suspended from the mystery of the swans which carry Siegfried into a dreamlike world. To better underline its appeal, Angelin Preljocaj made the hero the son of a tycoon in industry and finance. He also wanted to underline the peril threatening the lakes which, today, are polluting or drying up.
"And what will become of the swans?" Eight hundred species have disappeared in the space of a century, ”
points out the choreographer. Black magic for
Atys
who, blinded by the sorcery of Cybele, kills his beloved in what Preljocaj designates as
“An impossible love story, a reverse Romeo and Juliet. With the two artists Prune Nourry who signs the sets, and Jeanne Vicérial, the costumes, we start with the exaltation of feelings. We want to make the work more universal, and not to link it to the century of Louis XIV despite the twenty-five minute prologue which is an ode to the glory of the king. Aesthetics are linked to a contemporary creation. ”
And the dance leads the way for more than three hours.
It is, however, an opera in which Preljocaj is not only a choreographer but also a director.
“It will be an opera that will dance, I don't want to create a break between ballets and action.
In Villégier's version, each character plays their action and then suddenly the dance occurs, like an interlude or entertainment.
This will not be the case in my version, I am going to make the choirs and singers work on a corporeality, a particular incarnation.
It is linked to research that I often practice in my ballets: knowing how bodies will speak, ”
he says.
Metamorphosis
And to specify that he does not expect opera singers to beat the entrechat. Two years ago, in a remarkable work documented for the screen by Valérie Müller, Preljocaj worked with prisoners from Marseille. He listened to how their bodies could open up to dance and translate their experience. He gave injunctions, watched what was being expressed, then put it into space. He hopes to make lyrical singers and choirs work in the same way. Will he however dub each singer by a dancer, like Pina Bausch for
Orphée et Eurydice
?
“I won't do it systematically. I think more of the puppets behind which we sometimes see the puppeteer breathing life. ”
The choreographer's intention to include the opera in a great movement will serve the apparitions, numerous metamorphoses, inscribed in the libretto while sparing moments of extremely pure and simple grace.
Preljocaj does not intend to succumb to the temptation of the big operatic machine.
It is the first time that he is confronted with it.
“It scares me a bit
,” he admits.
But I always try to do something that I have never undertaken.
It has been a long time since I adopted this phrase from Dostoyevsky: to choose “subjects that are beyond me”. ”
"Swan Lake": from December 22 to January 2; "Atys": from March 19 to 23.
Atys: March 19 to 23