Friday 4 December 2020, 8pm50
On France 5 (90 min version)
Tuesday 29 June 2021, 9pm05
On France 4 & streaming with france.tv (90 min)
And streaming of the full version on France.tv until the 4th of June 2021
With
Florie Valiquette Pamina
Mathias Vidal Tamino
Marc Scoffoni Papageno
Lisa Mostin La Reine de la Nuit
Tomislav Lavoie Sarastro
Pauline Feracci Papagena
Olivier Trommenschlager Monostatos
Suzanne Jerosme Première Dame
Marie Gautrot Deuxième Dame
Mélodie Ruvio Troisième Dame
Matthieu Lecroart L’Orateur
Matthieu Chapuis Premier Prêtre, Homme en armure
Jean-Christophe Lanièce Deuxième Prêtre, Homme en armure
Hervé Niquet Conductor
Cécile Roussat, Julien Lubek Stage directors
Filmed ath the Opéra Royal de Versailles in January 2020
Directed by Colin Laurent
Production : Camera Lucida / Château de Versailles Spectacles / Le Concert Spirituel
You have read correctly: The Magic Flute sung in French and in 90 minutes.
Heresy? No, just the ancient desire of the conductor Hervé Niquet and the director of the Opéra royal to offer the opera to as many people as possible and to rediscover the original wish of Mozart and his librettist: a show for everyone and sung in the language of its listeners.
In 1791 in Vienna Mozart presented the Magic Flute in a popular theatre. The libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, who also wrote the staging, wanted to speak to everyone. To enthral young and old, music lovers and novice audiences alike, Mozart and Schikaneder's trump card was to speak to the audience in their own language - and not in Italian like the court opera.
The very structure of the work is meant to be easy: no sung recitatives but dialogues.
To draw the spectator into the story, they chose the staging by Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek, created for the Opéra de Liège in 2010, because it carries the energy of a popular theatre, well helped in this by a troupe of committed singers and daring circus performers.
Finally, slightly reduced, The Flute regains its soul of a fairy tale, almost for children, where a wind of energy, music and pleasure for all blows, which would not have displeased Mozart.
