On the stage curtain, a young man standing on a plane with the CCCP logo hands a bouquet of flowers to a pretty girl. Devil! What does a plane do between Alfred and Violetta? Are we going to do the same thing as La Bohème in a spaceship like at the Opéra Bastille in 2017 in a staging by Claus Guth? Which Traviata will be sung to us there? We shudder with apprehension. An hour and fifteen minutes later, as we left the room, we experienced the great thrill. The one - all too rare - that comes from a bath of tender and whimsical poetry.
Alfred and Violetta meet in Tbilisi. This is what Rezo Gabriadze wanted. Sculptor, painter and playwright, the man has already shone as a director in the USSR when he created Alfred and Violetta, in 1981, his first show intended for the inauguration of his puppet theatre, which he renovated before his death at the age of 85 in 2021. He went on to write five more, after some sixty films in which Georgians know lines by heart.
In the manner of a Chagall
The puppets occupy a...
This article is for subscribers only. You have 67% left to discover.
Want to read more?
Unlock all items immediately.
TEST FOR €0.99
Already a subscriber? Log